Chely Wright – Wish Me Away – Film Documentary

As part of the June 2012 Pride of the Ocean festival program, Pride of the Ocean is partnering with First Run Features to present “Wish Me Away,” starring country western singer-sensation, Chely Wright, with filmmakers Bobbie Birleffi and Beverly Kopf on board.

For all the details, visit the First Run Features site.

It’s official!  “Wish Me Away” tied for the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the 23rd annual Palm Springs International Film Festival on Sunday, January 15, 2012.

First Run Features has acquired U.S. rights to the award-winning Chely Wright doc “Wish Me Away.” The film, directed by Bobbie Birleffi and Beverly Kopf, tracks three years in the life of the country music star, as she struggles to come out publicly.

The doc is slated to hit theaters next Spring, followed by a VOD release.

Full release below:

First Run Features Acquires Bobbie Birleffi and Beverly Kopf’s
Award-Winning Documentary WISH ME AWAY

November 2, 2011, (New York) – First Run Features announced today its acquisition of the multiple award-winning documentary WISH ME AWAY from filmmakers Bobbie Birleffi and Beverly Kopf. First Run is planning a Spring 2012 theatrical launch with VOD, home video and television to follow. The deal was negotiated by Film Sales Company head Andrew Herwitz and First Run’s Marc Mauceri.

WISH ME AWAY tells the story of Chely Wright, the first country music star to come out as gay. After a lifetime of hiding, she shatters cultural and religious stereotypes within Nashville, her conservative heartland family, and most importantly, herself.

Over a three-year period, the filmmakers were given extraordinary access to Chely’s struggle and her unfolding plan to come out publicly. Using interviews with Chely, her family, key players in Nashville and her management team, and Chely’s intimate private video diaries, the film goes deep into her back story as an established country music star and then forward as she prepares to step into the national media glare to reveal that she is gay. Chronicling the aftermath of that decision in her hometown of Nashville and within the larger LGBT community, WISH ME AWAY reveals both the devastation of her own internalized homophobia – which led to Chely putting a gun in her mouth – and the transformational power of living an authentic life. It shows the struggles of being a Christian who happens to be gay. And it reveals how “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” has found it’s way into the culture of Nashville.

“This redemptive and inspiring true story shows how one brave soul risks her career, family, fame and fortune, so that she can be true to herself. It is drama of the highest order,” said First Run’s president, Seymour Wishman, in a statement. “We’re proud to be working with Bobbie and Beverly to bring Chely’s story to audiences in North America.”

“From the beginning, our vision has been to take this film not only to urban audiences, but to small towns in the heartland, the South, the West, and across the country,” said Birleffi and Kopf. “As they did for Dan Karslake’s FOR THE BIBLE TELLS ME SO, we’re confident First Run will make our film available to people everywhere, and we look forward to working with them.”

WISH ME AWAY has so far been honored with the Jury Award at the Los Angeles Film festival, the Award for Outstanding Documentary Feature at Frameline, The San Francisco LGBT Film Festival, and the Audience Award at the Nashville Film Festival, among many others.

Founded in 1979, First Run Features is one of American’s notable distributors of documentary and foreign films. Recent releases include DA Pennebaker’s and Chris Hegedus’s KINGS OF PASTRY, Ken Bowser’s PHIL OCHS: THERE BUT FOR FORTUNE, Joe Berlinger’s CRUDE, and Judith Ehrlich’s and Rick Goldsmith’s Academy Award-nominated THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN AMERICA: DANIEL ELLSBERG AND THE PENTAGON PAPERS.

As an AUDIENCE AWARD winner at the National Film Festival, we’re eligible to become a finalist in the prestigious Gotham Awards. All you have to do is go to this link and vote for us. Awards are wonderful ways to reach a larger audience — which is our goal.

Here’s the link to vote: http://www.indiepixfilms.com/videocontest_sv/IFP-AUDIENCE/5470

Thanks for your support!

IFP and Festival Genius are proud to announce the 2nd annual AUDIENCE AWARD for the 21st Gotham Independent Film Awards. This award celebrates audience award winners from across the Top 50 US and Canadian film festivals. YOU get to choose the winner.

The finalists will be chosen from your votes and will all be invited to attend the Gotham Awards where the winner will be announced live. The second round of voting will begin on November 10th and will feature the top 5 films from round one. The winner of the Festival Genius Audience Award will be announced at the 21st Gotham Independent Film Awards on November 28th.

Dear Supporters,

In the midst of gay teens committing suicide and anti-bullying programs being ignored in schools throughout the country; caught in a choke-hold of  anti-gay marriage rhetoric from Congress, church pulpits, state legislatures and even Presidential candidates, comes WISH ME AWAY, a simple story of courage that can reach even the most closed and judgmental heart.

The response to Wish Me Away has been incredible. Tears, laughter, and standing ovations. People coming up to us to thank us, saying how it has healed a deep wound they have carried around all their lives; telling us they can’t wait to share it with their families, friends, congregations. This is what has inspired us to make our dream of a theatrical release a reality.

But without a 35mm print, that dream will die and thousands of people who need to see this film, who have been waiting to see this film, will not get the chance. Wish Me Away has a mission and you can be part of it. The clock is ticking.

Thanks,
Beverly

Please help get the word out. All contributions go through our fiscal sponsor, the San Francisco Film Society and are tax deductible.

Here is the link:  http://www.indiegogo.com/Wish-Me-Away?a=59373&i=addr

WISH ME AWAY has just won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary Feature at the Los Angeles Film Festival AND also the Grand Jury Award for Best Documentary at the  Frameline 35 Festival in San Francisco!

Two wins in one week!! We are thrilled beyond words and so moved by the response to the film. We had packed theaters, standing ovations, and people coming up to us to express what this film means to them.

This is the comment from the Jury at LAFF:

“For its honesty, humor and potential to change minds and even save lives, the jury awards the Documentary Award to Wish Me Away.”

We’ll be screening at OUTFEST in LA on July 15 and at NEWFEST in NYC on July 22nd.  Hope to see you there!  More exciting news to come!

Thanks to each of you for your support throughout this amazing three year process.

Bobbie and Beverly

As marriage equality was being signed into law in NY, we were screening Wish Me Away in LA. And it was more than coincidence – it was a tipping point.

The response to Wish Me Away has been beyond anything we ever dreamed. Not just that we won The Grand Jury Award for Best Documentary Feature at both the Los Angeles Film Festival and at Frameline 35 in San Fransisco, or the standing, cheering 10 minute roar of an ovation we received at The Castro, it was in the faces of the people who came up to us, thanking us, sharing personal stories, letting us know that this film that we poured our heart and soul into was already making a difference.

We are incredibly grateful to Chely Wright for her enthusiastic support of this film and we look forward to seeing new faces and hearing new stories at OutFest (LA July 15th), NewFest (NY July 22nd) and beyond.

2011 Centerpiece Selection
WISH ME AWAY
Sunday, June 26 • 5:00pm

Sponsored by the Kansas City Missouri Human Rights Commission Gay & Lesbian Task Force

“Sometimes living one’s honest life is damn near impossible.” Or so it felt to award-winning country music star Chely Wright for most of her closeted life-first raised in a Christian home in a tiny Bible-Belt town and then as a member of the sexually repressed and homophobic country music industry in Nashville.

Surrounded by a family, community, culture and religion that all believed that being gay is just wrong (and, to many, “of the devil”), Wright prayed regularly for God to rid her of her homosexuality, vowing to give up on love in return. Instead, music became her love, as she scored hits like “Shut Up and Drive” and “Single White Female”. But while her dreams of stardom came true, she remained tormented by her sexuality and paralyzed by the fear of coming out. Would the country music industry tolerate a lesbian in their ranks? Would her fans reject her? She tried dating men (including fellow country star Brad Paisley), poured her energy into philanthropic endeavors, and contemplated suicide before finally acknowledging what she knew she needed to do.

In 2010, she began calculated preparations to release an album and a book (Like Me) that would finally reveal her coming-out story and make country music history.

Through sometimes-tearful interviews and conversations, video diary entries, music videos, and several of her songs, this touching portrait follows Wright up to her full-court media press, from Oprah to People magazine, as she discovers the transformational power of living an authentic life.

Check out “Wish Me Away” on the Kansas City Gay & Lesbian Film + Video Festival website.

Click here to buy your tickets!

We are thrilled to announce that WISH ME AWAY will be the Centerpiece of the FRAMELINE FILM FESTIVAL in San Francisco. Frameline is the oldest and largest LGBT film festival in the country.

The film screens on Wednesday, June 22, at 7:00pm at the historic Castro Theater in San Francisco. Filmmakers Bobbie Birleffi and Beverly Kopf will be there, as will Chely Wright for Q&A following the film, and will be attending the Centerpiece After party as well.

Go to Frameline.org and get your tickets!

Come one — come all!

More postscripts on our amazing time in Nashville. On Friday night, besides having creative folks from the Nashville music industry present, we had several Nashville people

who are IN the film present at the first screening. Legendary producer Tony Brown, who produced several of Chely’s hits said he thought the film was fantastic.

Blair Garner, syndicated country radio host, jumped up during the Q&A and invited Chely to be on his radio show–that’s huge!! It was also a thrill for me to meet songwriters like

Carolyn Dawn Johnson, who wrote “Single White Female.” BMI hosted a private party after the screening which we appreciated so much and which really validated the film and Chely as the pioneer she is.  It’s never easy to be the first, but we know this film is creating history and will help others to come out in the future.  We have received some comments from straight people saying the film could make people “re-evaluate their thinking.”  More to come…………..Bobbie

Chely Wright took another memorable step in her public coming-out as a high-profile lesbian by walking the red carpet at the Nashville Film Festival with fiancée Lauren Blitzer on Friday night (April 15). The occasion was a sneak-preview showing of ‘Wish Me Away,’ the documentary film which chronicles the events leading up to last May, when the country singer first announced to the public that she is gay.

The sold-out screening was attended by fellow country artists Carolyn Dawn Johnson (writer of Chely’s No. 1 hit, ‘Single White Female’), Rodney Crowell and SHeDAISY, and during Q-and-A session with Chely and filmmakers Bobbie Birleffi and Beverly Kopf after the film, the singer noted that she had received a supportive e-mail from Faith Hill, who was unable to attend.

To read the full article, click here.