Country singer Chely Wright: ‘I breathe better, I laugh louder, everything's better'

But "Wish Me Away's" unexpected strength is passages from a video diary that Wright taped of herself for more than a year, on a video camera, MacBook and an iPhone, as she confronted her shifting fears and waning courage. The frequently sleep-deprived singer talks into the lens like a POW who hasn't seen sunshine or sustenance in a long time, the grainy footage adding a dark-nights-of-the-soul confessional feel, raw and real.

We heard a much happier Wright, who married LGBT activist Lauren Blitzer in Connecticut in August, over the phone recently.

On how "Wish Me Away" shows the sources of her stress ever-shifting: "I guess that's the art of documentary filmmaking. If you do it right, you really kind of put a saddle on a moving animal and you take a ride."

On how the film turned out to have more universal theme than she expected: "The entire time I felt I was telling the story of a country singer coming out. But what I realized in having people view this film and then approach me and put their hand over their heart and say, 'Chely, I just found my story in your story' ... this is the story of anybody trying to find their little piece of the world. Nobody fits in. It's the struggle of trying to find your footing, and it can be crazy-making at times."

On giving full access to filmmakers after a 15-year career in which she carefully cultivated her image: "Any time that any reticence might have crept in, I just told them I was feeling scared and vulnerable. And they were incredibly respectful.

"I'm not going to tell you that there weren’t times they didn’t bug the heck out of me. But I do want to mention that I did not see the film until it was completed. I had absolutely no editorial say. It had to be that way... Otherwise it's not documentary filmmaking, it's me doing a music video or something."

On the decision to tape her video diary: "I had a wondering about what heartbreak looked like. I knew what heartbreak was sounding like, because I'd written an album on it, and I knew what it was sounding like on a page. I wanted to see what it looked like on film."

On why she never watched the footage: "It was hard. No one cries pretty."

On a Birmingham deejay who interviews her in the film and suggests her coming out was opportunistic: "It's odd to me that anyone would ever question anyone coming out. I guess it would take someone who has not dealt with what a person who's been maligned by society has dealt with to say something like that. It's tough to stand up. So to have anyone suggest, 'Oh, she just came out to increase record sales...'  Really? Why didn't I think of it before?"

On finding her bearings again after the media storm: "I just recorded with Linda Perry a couple of weeks ago in L.A., and I'm working on a new record. I'm getting to do all the things I never thought I'd be able to do. ...I get to make records, write songs, and I'm out and open. I'm married, I have a wife. I breathe better, I laugh louder. Everything's better."

On Nashville's response to her coming out: "I've had no contact. No one has invited me to do the Opry, which I've done six or seven times a year since 1989. Of course, the way it works, you don't get a pink slip from Nashville. They don't fire you, they ice you out. But I focus on the fans and the people in the industry who have reached out and said, 'Good for you and good for progress and good for equality.'"

On if Music Row's cold shoulder surprised her: "Of course I'm not shocked. That's why I hid who I am for so long. I'm not going to say it doesn't hurt. When you're lauded as one of the beloved people of your industry and all of the sudden it's crickets and no one is saying anything publicly ...

"I'm not a person who gets mad a lot, but it has made me mad over the last year and it has hurt me. I'm just a human and I have human emotions. And I'm also an artistic human and we tend to be tender. So I'm not going to stand here and tell you I don't care what people think about me. Of course, I do. Of course, I do."

Film preview

"Wish Me Away"

7:15 p.m. Oct. 5 at Landmark Midtown Art Cinema. $10. Presenting 50-plus films, Out on Film runs Sept. 29-Oct. 6 at Landmark Midtown, 931 Monroe Drive, Atlanta, and other venues. 404-671-9446, www.outonfilm.org.