Reel Rundown: ‘Come See Me in the Good Light’ lets viewers tip the scales of life, and Andrea Gibson’s death, in light’s direction

Let’s start with the bad news: On July 14, 2025, the poet Andrea Gibson died of ovarian cancer. Gibson, who was Colorado’s 10th poet laureate, was just 49 years old.

Now for the less-bad news: Gibson is the focus of the documentary “Come See Me in the Good Light,” which is streaming on Apple TV and Amazon Prime. Directed by Ryan White, and produced by the stand-up comic Tig Notaro, the film follows Gibson’s struggle with the disease.

Using the terms “less bad” instead of “good” is no commentary on the film’s quality. It means simply that White’s film is no mere holiday entertainment. It is instead a study of how one person copes with the specter of a deadly condition. Moreover, it shows how difficult it is not just to maintain a career but to retain hope despite what is almost certain to be a fatal outcome.

Yet, too, that very struggle – not to mention Gibson’s brave efforts in the face of it – is what gives “Come See Me in the Good Light” such power. Many of us know friends or family members who are engaged in the same kind of battle to squeeze out as much life as possible in whatever time they have left.

In showing us Gibson’s struggle, White also gives us a good sense of who the poet is and was. We see Gibson as a young girl, talented at basketball while being raised in a conservative household. That same girl, though, never fit into the demands of that culture.

As can be found in the poem “Good Light” – which is the source of the title that White gave to his film – Gibson wrote, “My yes never fit into the no of this world.” And, the poem continues, “I was just a little girl trying to get rid of the just and the little,/ got rid of the girl instead.”

Identifying as genderqueer – or nonbinary – and using they/them/theirs pronouns, Gibson was active in gender and LGBTQ+ issues. And much of what White’s documentary focuses on is the poet’s longtime relationship with Megan Falley (the two married sometime after becoming engaged in August 2022).

A skilled spoken-word performer who began working professionally in 2005, Gibson not only was a four-time Denver Grand Slam Champion but competed successfully in various national contests. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis named Gibson as the state’s poet laureate in September 2023.

To be effective, any such documentary has to find a narrative arc. And the one that director White comes up with involves Gibson’s attempts, in the face of one health setback after the next, to pull off one last public performance. At the same time, he wanted to make sure that the film was not just simply a death watch but offered instead a message of hope.

As White told the Hollywood Reporter, “Andrea would constantly say to me, ‘Ryan, don’t let what happened to me happen to you. It took knowing I was about to die for me to see the beauty in this world and in my relationships.’ ”

Revealing how White does conclude his film would provide too much of a spoiler. But the poetry fans among us might find a clue in two other lines from Gibson’s “Good Light” poem, which is included in the collection “Lord of the Butterflies.”

“I know how much the pain of this world weighs,” Gibson wrote, “/but I can still tip the scales in light’s direction.”