Ray Schmitt has created “Out of the Blue,” another masterpiece of personal cinema therapy, as he did with “Six Months,” creating a film about his life since the tragic loss of his wife Judy several years ago. He travels the country and to Mexico in search of spiritual peace, showing on camera how deeply he misses his wife.
He talks to many people who have also recently lost their spouses, getting different responses. He explores both Eastern and Western philosophy and religion, running in to the reality of “synchronicity.”He uses some clips of other films of his to show how he has experienced people’s emotions about death before. But the most touching scenes are the many clips of his film of Judy, showing photographs and film clips that reveal how much Judy was part of his soul.
I myself was brought to tears, just watching the devastation that Ray had to face, not only from Judy’s demise, but her mother’s, and than Ray’s own father who died at the time of a memorial service. Ray has a family cemetary now on his land in Mathias, Hardy County.
Hopefully, everyone will get to see this film, especially people who have lost their mates. It is one of the finest examples of “cinema therapy” – using cinema to experience the necessary therapy everyone needs to survives crises like Ray had to face. The film may be shown at The South Charleston Museum’s La Belle Theater in April 2010 but I hope he shows it in film festivals, and perhaps on WVPBS TV someday.
Subscribe to WV Film
hope to see it soon
My Uncle Ray is an amazingly talented and compassionate man. I know that his film will be a tribute to a woman who was not only loved by him, but by all the people whose lives she touched. Still surreal to me that she is no longer here. Hopefully, by making this film and sharing it with others it will help ease his loss and help many others who have had, or will go through, the loss of a spouse. I’m sure it will be a bittersweet experience.
I just had the privilege of watching Ray Schmitt’s “Out of the Blue.” It is a beautiful film. I was impressed at Schmitt’s ability to take his very personal, spiritual journey and make it accessible, understandable and visually stunning. In addition to his filmmaking skills, which are evident throughout, I admired Schmitt’s ability to be open to all spiritual traditions as well as the many “teachers” he encountered on his journey. The questions inspired by grief are ones we all grapple with at some point, and this film offers much to the seeker, including the reminder that it is in the journey that we find life.