The West Virginia Filmmakers Film Festival

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Ray and Judy Schmitt

FOR THE LOVE OF THEATRE

—World Premiere—
2006 28 mins.
Real Earth Productions

Hardy County filmmaker Ray Schmitt and his Hardy County colleague Joshua Miller created this portrait of the Landmark Players in Sutton and its director Jim Walker (inset). Several actors (including Greg Mach and Lydia Mong, left) talk about the influence Jim Walker and participating in theater in general has had on their lives.

And...

BEAUTIFUL YOU

—World Premiere—
2006 34 mins. 
Real Earth Productions

Judy and Ray Schmitt have completed their portrait of one of West Virginia’s most unusual artists, Ai Qiu Hopen, a poet and sculptor. She is the daughter of Chinese beekeepers who found her husband, Bill Hopen, on the web. Hopen is a well known Sutton-based sculptor who also founded the Landmark Studio for the Arts. The title of the film comes from “Beautiful You,” a song by Elaine Wine who was performing in Sutton one night when the Schmitts were visiting.

Ai Qiu’s beautiful drawings are shown along with some of her artworks – ragtime musician Blind John W. Boone, a large Charles Chaplin for The China National Sculpture Park, “Peace Prayer,” designed for The International Peace Monument, Shanghai, China, “Bat in Sunshine”  for the downtown Shanghai Real Estate Plaza,  “The Spirit of the Violin”  and many small works of art. She is shown  sculpting  ”Blind Boone”and “Spirit of the Violin.”  She talks about her life in China, her work, and her life in West Virginia with her husband and two young children.
www.aiqiuhopen.com (in a new window).

Filmmaker Ray Schmitt at the 2006 WV Filmmakers Festival. Pictured here with Landmark Studio Artistic Director Jim Walker, singer/songwriter Elaine Wine and sculptors Ai Qiu and Bill Hopen with their daughter.

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