Meet You at the Light is a bittersweet and heartfelt portrait that depicts the rich and complex relationship between an eldest daughter and her diabetic father, in a South Asian immigrant family.

Director’s Vision

Desiree wrote this song after she lost her grandpa in South Carolina during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, as a result of not being able to attend his funeral. She sought to create a piece that explored different facets of grief through the reflection on what someone’s presence means to someone, pre and post-mortem. I

The daugher of the film is based on a very close friend of mine. Her dad died in the spring of 2020, after an exhaustive five-year battle with diabetes, kidney failure, sepsis and severe depression. Given my proximity to her family, I had a front-row look into some of the challenges they faced, and more insightfully, how heavy they weighed on my friend throughout her dad’s deteriorating health. “Leaving the hospital, driving back home, I would feel so weak.. overwhelmed by not being able to do more. In bed I would be looking at old photos and webpages on life expectency of people with the same health issues as my dad and get so upset by it,” she’d explain to me. We had chatted at length about scultping and sharing this story in a way that feels honest, true, and lived-in.

Personally, the relationship between a caregiving child and a co-dependent parent feels emotionally rich. How the intersections of love, responsibility, patience, honour and sacrifice all weave together, specifically in a Brown household — I knew I would have a fruitful and exciting time directing this sort of project. I want to shed light on the beautifully emotional relationship between this father and daughter — that it could be playful, sincere and earnest, all at once. I want to steer clear of the narrative that children are not always burdened by their sick parents — that honour, fulfilment and deep, deep love can submarine out of the process, despite how grim the circumstances may seem. And most importantly, how both father and daughter manage to wholeheartedly communicate this unspoken love while holding space for one another.

There was a beautiful paradox of sorts at play here; the closer that she became with her father through caregiving, the less agency he held onto as a parental figure—someting he wanted to hold onto as long as he can. What delicate territory to traverse… and when I got to do it with an actual real-life father and daughter (more on this later), the project really started to take on a life of its own.