Marcy Brenner and WV filmmaker Ray Schmitt
Ray Schmitt traveled from Mathias, Hardy County, WV to Ocracoke on the NC coastal islands to present his newest film, “Dead Girl Walking.” The film was shown on Friday, September 12th, at 7:30 PM. It was standing room only. After the film was shown everyone stood and gave them a standing ovation. He told me, “I have never experienced anything like that.” Four local newspapers carried stories about the film and the subject of his film, Marcy Brenner. Below is one of the local newspaper stories about the film. Another published by the Island Free Press is here. You can watch a preview of the film here.
A Story to Tell
By Jamie Tunnell
Ocracoke Observer
September 2008
Everyone has a story tell. It’s the story behind the story that often makes it worth telling and better yet, worth listening to.
Marcy Brenner has a story to tell to cancer survivors about how she survived. She was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 34, the same year she lost her mother to ovarian cancer. Her journey through the different roles of caretaker to patient to survivor is the subject of “Dead Girl Walking”, a documentary film by Ray Schmitt of Real Earth Productions. From the beginning, this story was meant to be told.
“Essentially, finding Marcy was a serendipitous thing,” said Schmitt. “I purchased her CD in 2006 when camping in OBX because I was drawn to the black and white cover photo. I liked the interaction of the two musicians (Lou and Marcy) on the cover shots. When I listened to it at home and was reading the words, I saw that Coyote had an email address… We were back and forth with emails throughout the day and I found out more about her and her battle with cancer. By the end of the day I committed to doing a film on her without ever meeting her.”
Marcy and her husband Lou form the musical duo Coyote, often seen performing on the island on nearly every night of the week. On their album, “Home to Me”, you can hear the song that inspired Schmitt’s film about Marcy’s journey entitled “Dead Girl Walking”, also the title of her in-progress memoir.
“My inspiration to do the memoir came when I saw my chest for the first time after the surgery and realized that it was ok,” said Brenner. “And I want it to be ok for everyone else. That’s my motivation. It keeps me going whether writing this book, talking to people, or being the subject of this film.”
In a Relay for Life Keynote address earlier this year, Marcy calls her cancer a wake-up call to life.
“There are small everyday miracles, everywhere, when I notice them. And then there are the big ones that changed my life like falling in love again when I didn’t dare dream of a future, having my whole life be about music, living long enough to worry about gray hairs, and to be my little Charlotte’s forever mother.”
Schmitt says the film is for breast cancer survivors and their partners, for spiritual seekers and for anyone whose life has been touched by a life-threatening illness. On May 15, Brenner and Schmitt invited a few people into Brenner’s living room to watch one cut of the film. I can say first-hand that some of the footage is so powerful that it speaks to the viewer without words. There’s video of a Marcy that most people here have not known yet when you look into her eyes on the film, you know that is the Marcy we know now – the fighter, the motivator, the survivor.
“It was important for me to invite the Ocracoke community to see this film because we are all a part of each other’s family here,” said Brenner. “When you have battled something like this, you turn to your family.”
Marcy emphasizes her role in the film – the subject.
“This is Ray’s story and I’ll be seeing this film for the first time just like everyone that attends that night,” said Brenner. “It is cool to see how he has told my story. I will tell anyone, anything, so when Ray approached me, I just said yes. It felt right. I knew he was kind and was doing good work in the world. I trusted him immediately.”
Hear Marcy’s story at the first public screening of “Dead Girl Walking”, the documentary film by Ray Schmitt (Real Earth Productions), at Deepwater Theater on Friday, September 12 at 7:30pm.
LYRICS from “HOME TO ME” album
DEAD GIRL WALKING (Brenner/Castro ASCAP)
Dead girl walking
On a lonesome road, headed to a chair
Dread comes knocking
Rackin’ my brain for one good prayer
Dead girl walking
Dropped down in a basement nightmare
IVs and TVs squawking
Balding heads fight despair
Tragedy happens every day
This fear I carry has many names
Dead girl walking
Please loan me strength I can’t repay
I beg you, keep talking
The shadow never quite goes away
Dead girl walking
That needle stitchin’ my well laid plans
Uncertainty is stalking
My future’s held in hungry hands
Tragedy happens every day
This fear I carry has many names
I’m still walkin’, I have survived
I am a woman who’s finally
Finally
Alive
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[...] Hardy County, WV filmmaker Ray Schmitt has won an international competition for his film, “Dead Girl Walking.” The film is about Outer Banks artist Macy Brenner, an artist who developed breast cancer. The film was posted on line where people could vote for their favorite film. It beat out seven other films in competition. Congrats to Ray Schmitt, his wife Judy, and Marcy for making such a great film about a bad subject. The film had its world premiere at Ocraoke, Outer Banks, and premiered in October in WV at the 2008 WV Filmmakers Film Festival. Ray will be traveling to Toronto to receive the award. [...]