On December 4, the IndieWire Honors Winter 2025 ceremony will celebrate the creators and stars responsible for crafting some of the year’s best films. Curated and selected by IndieWire’s editorial team, IndieWire Honors is a celebration of the filmmakers, artisans, and performers behind films well worth toasting. In the days leading up to the Los Angeles event, IndieWire is showcasing their work with new interviews and tributes from their peers.
Honoring Ryan White, our Magnify Award winner and her fellow producer, multi-hyphenate Tig Notaro reflects on the process of creating the loving and lovely documentary “Come See Me in the Good Light” and why she knew White was the right filmmaker for such a delicate gig.
As told to Kate Erbland.
I met Jessica Hargrave, Ryan’s producing partner, first. Years ago, she was the tour manager for Sarah Silverman’s bus tour, and I was opening for Sarah. After the tour, she invited Ryan and some friends to see me perform at Largo, and Ryan told his friends, “Oh, apparently this comedian’s funny.”
It ended up being the show where I announced I had cancer, so that was a crazy twist. Later, Ryan was like, “I just thought, ‘I’ll bring all my gay friends, and we’ll go see this funny comedian.’”
I had seen their documentaries over the years, and I just loved them. I kept reaching out saying, “I love this.” I’d see them at parties and events, and they were like, “Bring us something. We’d love to do something funny.” So when I came to them with this movie, I was like, “This is my nonbinary friend who is a poet with stage four cancer.”
I just thought they were decent people, and that was really important to me with making this film. They called me back within three days, and they were like, “We are all in.” They bought their tickets and flew out to Colorado to meet Andrea and Meg, I think, the next week. That, in itself, says this is the right filmmaker.
I remember saying, “This project can only be led with love. There cannot be an ounce of room for a weirdo to be rattling around in this production.” Because it is impossible to get through a production, TV, film, whatever you’re doing, without some weirdo rearing their head, and you’re like, “Oh, my God.” This did not happen one time on this production.
Andrea and Meg loved them immediately. It was on both sides. Ryan and Jessica reached out to me and said, after they met Meg and Andrea, they cried the whole way home, knowing that they were going to lose this person.
Ryan is just such a sensitive, present person, and it’s so obvious in his filmmaking. He really lets moments play out. He trusts his subjects. He trusts that the reason he’s there directing this documentary is because there is a story to tell, and he lets the story unfold.
I remember Ryan saying, “We film an entire documentary every day that we are with Andrea and Meg.” There’s so much to choose from, and they’re so open to revealing the depths of hell to the highest of high joys. It’s like a dream for somebody like Ryan to come in. He said that he’s never had subjects ask what story they’re telling, or can we see some footage, or can you get this angle and not this angle? Andrea and Meg trusted Ryan as an artist, and just as he was trusting that his subjects were worthy of a documentary.
It was a miracle for sure, for everything to line up the way that it did. Stef Willen, who is another producer and an old friend of mine and Andrea’s, we were on a call trying to figure out what to do with Andrea’s podcast, with editing and producing and getting it out into the world. And Stef is the one that said, “I feel like Andrea’s life would make an incredible documentary.” I couldn’t believe I hadn’t thought of that myself, it was so clear. And that’s exactly what this was. It was complete clarity on my part, Stef’s part, and everyone that got on board had that feeling like, “Oh yeah, oh yes, this.”
When Ryan first responded to me and he was like, “Oh, I get it, and we’ve got to do this.” He also said, “We cannot share this with anybody. We cannot pitch this to a streamer, anybody. We have to raise money independently. We can’t get notes. We have to just make the most beautiful film we can possibly make.”
I just stand here today going, “Oh, my God, we did it. We did it.” And the fact that I’m doing mainstream press for this? I’m on “The Drew Barrymore Show” talking about my nonbinary poet friend with stage four cancer? I’m like, on what planet is this happening? It’s insane.
It was a very compartmentalized joy. If you ignore the fact that a friend is at the end of life, every other part of it was pure joy. The director is leading the whole show, and Ryan was beyond what I could have hoped for in a director.