American Orpheus
A single mother (Jody Esther) forms a bond beyond death with her young daughter in a coastal Washington town. Made as an homage to Jean Cocteau's Orphée (1950).
Rick Schmidt
Casts & Crew
Also Directed by Rick Schmidt
LONELINESS IS SOUL features two young women, Meeka and Jessica who rent an Oakland apartment where an itinerate musician occasionally crashes. His presence in the household acts like a truth serum, somehow suddenly prompting everyone, including a strange "gift-giver" and prying landlord to tell their strangest real-life stories. His own hilarious tale about taking magic mushrooms on the beach helps convince the viewer that the only really "safe" path in life is to go directly for one's dream "full out," holding nothing back.
story about obsessions & letting go
When a corporate movie chain invades Brunswick, Maine, tries to put the tiny Eveningstar Cinema (100 seats) out of business, they are confronted by a secret and fervent, mallet-wielding Women-Only Croquet Club, which protests them at every turn.
TEARS OF BANKERS follows the mortgage meltdown of Mr. Barry Norman's B&B, owned and operated by himself and his wife Brittany (Brittany Hannah) in the small town of Rome, Georgia. At the beginning, Norman states his distain for bankers; they will rule soon on his loan and prospects for the future ('ten words that decides basically the rest of my life'). Since Norman has kept his present financial problems secret from Brittany, she's remained confused by her husband's increasingly erratic behavior. As the loan deadline approaches, Norman wonders if he will again lose a house AND a wife (his second) to the machinations of the banking industry. Only a miracle can save him, as the money men move in for the kill.
CRASH MY FUNERAL is a surreal comedy about a scriptwriter's block. In an attempt to pull his movie back on track he employs drastic measures; trying out impossible dialogue on a pizza delivery man, wandering around the neighborhood to scare up new characters and scenes, hoping for inspiration from every pretty girl that passes his way. In the end he realizes that the creation of art, for him, isn't fictional at all, but merely a collage of real-life moments in which he finds meaning and delight. Produced as part of Rick Schmidt Workshop.
Barry's about to make a few changes in his life...
A Type-A woman, Maya, hitchhikes her way through Death Valley after a fatal car crash. She is frustrated while waiting for her car to be repaired, she talks to the town's many residents (mostly childless women and a roaming ghost named Robbie). Finally she mellows and decides to stay there for eternity.
Thrown out of his crash pad after traveling the West Coast, a young man, David, hits the streets without money or direction. Fortunately a little girl, points him to a rooftop where other homeless people have crashed.
MIRAGE is about a old man, Jefe, who has a cult-like hold on his household of wayward, homeless new-age women, whoever Mike, his 20 year old henchman, can pick up at local bars and cafés in Santa Fe, NM and bring back to the adobe. Homelife starts disintegrating when a Native American woman, Lisa, falls in love with a Native American drifter, Freddie. Music from underground Chicago (Ill Ben, .org, Murlot, Jo-Fixxx-it, Saykay), Memphis (David Rookings, Olga, and Bluff City Backslides/Don MacGregor), and Santa Fe (Alex Maryol, Jonathan Grossman, Blood Drained Cows) supplies an energy pack, propelling the lovers forth toward their breakout finale.
Emerald Cities, completing the trilogy, is a story about a young woman who runs off from her Death Valley home to seek her fortune. Her drunken dad still stuck in his Santa suit from the local Christmas pagent, follows and soon comes in contact with the "new dark ages" of 1984. Juxtapositions of "on-the street" interviews (by Willie Boy Walker), punk performances by bands Flipper and The Mutants, TV shows of past-life hypnotism and nuclear destruction, and a crazed ex-con all finally intermix with the characters' own sagas.