Wish Me Away, the film that
documents country music singer Chely Wright's coming out gay
experience, has won the Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature
at the 23rd Annual Palm Springs International Film
Festival.
Wish Me Away tied for the award
with The Girls In The Band, FilmThreat.com
reported.
Wish Me Away, which had its
world premiere on April 15, 2011 at the Nashville Film Festival, was
produced and directed by Bobbie Birleffi and Beverly Kopf, who
together run TVGals Media.
“When we started this project, we
knew it was going to be hard,” Birleffi said at the film's
screening. “We had the idea that the world would open their hearts
with this film, that that was our guiding light.”
“The minute I decided to come out in
2007, the right people came into my life,” Wright said after the
film received a long standing ovation at its Frameline35 showing in
San Francisco. “I knew the [filmmakers] would handle this story
with sensitivity. In telling my story, I know that I'm really 'just
like you,'”
In 2010, Wright, 41, told People
magazine that she is a lesbian ahead of the release of her memoir
Like Me: Confessions of a Heartland Country Singer, in which
she talks about her life as a closeted country music singer. She
married her partner Lauren Blitzer in a ceremony in Connecticut last
summer.