Explore the Insights from the Doc Talk Podcast on Oscar-Shortlisted Films ‘Come See Me In The Good Light,’ ‘Coexistence, My Ass!’ & ‘We Were The Scenery’
Documentary filmmakers celebrated their inclusion in the Oscar shortlists, but this moment of triumph quickly gives way to anticipation as they await the announcement of the final Academy Award nominees.
Veteran filmmaker Ryan White has repeatedly competed for Oscars with notable works such as Good Night Oppy, Coded, and Ask Dr. Ruth. His latest project, Come See Me in the Good Light, has garnered over a dozen awards worldwide, including the Festival Favorite designation at Sundance. The film centers on the poignant love story of poets Andrea Gibson and Megan Falley, who confront Gibson’s terminal cancer diagnosis with both courage and humor. White shared insights into how the project took shape, early involvement from comedian Tig Notaro, and the collaboration with singer-songwriters Sara Bareilles and Brandi Carlile on the film’s Oscar-nominated original song.
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In Coexistence, My Ass!, filmmaker Noa Fares and her protagonist, Israeli comedian Noam Shuster-Eliassi, explore the fraught dynamics of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Shuster-Eliassi reflects on her upbringing in a “peace oasis” in Israel, where Jews and Palestinians coexist harmoniously, and critiques the notion of “coexistence” as advocated by some peace supporters, emphasizing the failure to recognize an “asymmetric” power imbalance in the region.
Meanwhile, We Were the Scenery, directed by Radcliff, offers a humorous take on the experiences of a Vietnamese couple, Hoa Thi Che and Hue Nguyen Che, who fled their country as “boat people” after the Vietnam War. After spending time in a refugee camp in the Philippines in the mid-1970s, they found themselves unexpectedly cast in Francis Ford Coppola’s film Apocalypse Now, which was filmed in the Philippines as a substitute for Vietnam.
Radcliff reveals that one of the couple’s most vivid memories from their filming experience is Coppola’s unusual method of eating a mango. To this day, the Ches prefer watching Apocalypse Now on a VHS tape recorded off local television, complete with advertisements.
The full episode can be accessed through major podcast platforms including Spotify, iHeart, and Apple.
