There can’t be many director-producer teams in this year’s Oscar race with a longer partnership than that between Ryan White (director of Come See Me in the Good Light) and producer Jessica Hargrave. They’ve been making movies together since they were 12-year-old kids.
“Ryan and I met in fourth grade [at school] and we have been best friend ever since. We grew up in Atlanta, Georgia,” Hargrave tells Business Doc Europe. Their birthdays are a month apart. Both are now 45 – and so have known each other, and collaborated, for more than three decades.
“We stayed best friends throughout this period. Sometime in middle school, which is [when you are] 12 or 13, we started using his mum’s VHS camera to make movies. At the time they were scripted films which we would script together and have our friends play the parts.”
They would do the editing in-camera (back then, there wasn’t the software to enable them to edit on their computers). When they weren’t making films, they were busy watching them. Every weekend, they would go to the movies.
Since then, White and Hargrave have specialised in documentary. They run LA-based production company Tripod Media (which they set up around 2008) together. The name doesn’t have anything to do with the way they shoot their films, simply that there were originally three of them (including a third friend who soon “went a different path.”)
“The documentary world at that time was much smaller. It was very difficult at that time to make documentary films and be paid to do,” Hargrave recalls their early years in the business. “When Ryan first started directing his first film, there was no money – and so you’re just asking your friends to help. I, as his best fired, was a large part of that.”
Gradually, as they became established in the documentary world, they were able to “quit the day jobs” and dedicate themselves to filmmaking. Since then, their projects have included everything from galactic adventure, Good Night Oppy, to Pamela, A Love Story, about TV and movie star turned activist, Pamela Anderson.
Their new feature, though, Come See in the Good Light is surely the most raw and emotional film they have yet undertaken. It follows the final months of Andrea Gibson, a fast-talking, witty, warm, spoken word-poet who is facing a terminal cancer diagnosis.
Hargrave was initially wary when producer and comedian, Tig Notaro, suggested the project to them. “I am not someone who reads poetry. I haven’t read it since I had in high school.” The producer admits she had “a certain preconceived understanding” of what kind of film was being proposed. “I was resistant. I had never heard of Andrea. Ryan had never heard of Andrea – and so the initial response was one of hesitation.”
But their minds were soon changed. Gibson (who used the pronoun ‘they’) proved to be an inspirational subject. After Notaro sent them footage of Gibson performing, they were immediately hooked on the story. “Reading is one thing. Watching them perform is another. I watched them perform a poem about their partner, Megan Falley.”
The filmmakers then also listened to an interview with Gibson. They realised that there could be much more to the story than just a wallow in grief. It helped too that Gibson and Falley proved to be such warm and generous hosts.
In making their documentary, the filmmakers were “hyper-aware of the possibility of being invasive,” but the couple made it clear they welcomed the cameras. “The whole project was built around trust and we would always trust them to guide and let us know when something was too much…”
Given their own initial reservations, the filmmakers understood that potential financiers and distributors might be nervous about taking on what seemed like such a downbeat project. They realised that the “film needed to prove itself essentially.”
Financing was raised independently. “It was really just laying the track as the train approached,” Hargrave says. Initial backing came from exec producers Glennon Doyle and Abby Wambach. “That got us going. Then, in the process of filming with that funding, we were able to find more.”
This was a documentary that eventually had 17 executive producers and four co-executive producers, many of them celebrated names in their own right, supporting it. “They all just came together because they believed in the power of Andrea and the potential of the film.”
On a personal level, this was a raw and wrenching experience for Hargrave. She and White had the huge high of the Sundance premiere, which was a triumph, and which Gibson was well enough to attend. However, last summer, several months after the completion of the documentary, Gibson died.
“I have never been in a situation like this before when I know almost certainly that I was going to lose someone, and I walked toward them,” Hargrave reflects. “It’s a very interesting experience getting to know someone, knowing that the time is decreasing as you get to know them. It’s a very unusual experience…it helped us recognise the urgency of life.”
When they were with Gibson, the filmmakers shot as much as they could because they simply didn’t know how long they had. “We thought let’s just try and pack as much of Andrea in as we can, as much time as we can spend with them.”
They started editing right away. The film was completed in a barely a year – far quicker than most of the projects on which White and Hargrave have worked. Production began in January 2024 – and the film premiered in Park City twelve months later.
Some asked why they didn’t wait for Gibson’s death as an end point for the documentary. They counter that their film was about life, not death, and that they wanted to celebrate their subject, not make an elegy about them. Gibson was very funny with superb comedic timing – and their (Gibson’s) humour never deserted them.
“It was so joyful. We would leave those shoots feelings more alive. That’s part of what compelled us to make the film…”
Gibson was there, promoting the film in Sundance and continued to do so as long as their health permitted. Their final zoom Q&A was in June, just a few weeks before their death.
“We would go to see them without the cameras because we loved them so much and we had grown so close,” Hargrave speaks of how the relationship between all the crew members and Gibson and Falley continued long after the movie was wrapped.
The film has proved cathartic for Gibson’s partner Falley. “She has been grieving publicly, but what it means is she gets to talk about Andrea all the time which keeps them so present. She says she is so grateful for that – and so am I!”
Apple TV came on board after the Sundance premiere and has proved a staunch supporter as the awards campaign has picked up momentum.
“They’ve been incredible partners for lots of reasons. They really believe in the film. You would think a poetry-cancer film wouldn’t exactly fly off the shelves, but they have done a great job in understanding what the message of the film is and getting it out,” the producer praises her streamer partners. What’s more, the film has proved very popular on the platform. “It made it to number one – and with the Oscar nomination, the film went back into the top 10…to have it on that platform gives access internationally to so many people. We’re so grateful for that!”
