Veering off the normal track

Mental Health Awareness Month isn’t until May, but maybe we should step it up a little.

After all, April has already seen a scary proliferation of violent acts perpetrated by people obviously in need of some sort of treatment. There’s been everything from a father throwing his children off an Arizona bridge to a man turning a placid rural North Carolina nursing home into a shooting gallery.

And these awful scenarios, and a half-dozen others like them, are only the tip of the iceburg — or the barrel of the rifle — when it comes to the millions of others who will probably never hurt anyone but suffer equally.

Indeed, the majority of us no doubt veer off the “normal” track from time to time. Yet the stigma attached to mental illness remains, perhaps fed by the workplace shooters and ledge jumpers that we in the media love to throw in the faces of our readers and watchers.

That’s one of the reasons Keith Lee put together his second film, “In and Out of Mind,” starring two conflicted people who say nothing throughout until the final minute. This is perhaps the ultimate use of the old writers’ adage “Show, don’t tell.”

Physically, the entire film takes place in the Lynchburg airport. The turbulent minds of lead characters Sonia Langhorne and Tony Camm aren’t confined within those walls, however, and their flights of fantasy — both frightening and inspiring — provide the engine of the action.

For his original title, Lee dipped into his roots as a dance instructor.

“I called it ‘Adagio Over Their Heads,’” he said with a chuckle, “but I didn’t get real good feedback from that. A lot of people didn’t know what an adagio was (hint: it’s not a new import vehicle) and others thought the phrase ‘over their heads’ might be misconstrued by the audience.

“So ‘In and Out of Mind’ seemed appropriate.”

Indeed, it does. Langhorne’s character, while always well-dressed, hears voices, is tormented by anxiety and depression, and really, really doesn’t like going to the mental health clinic. The ex-soldier (we assume) played by Camm is fighting his way out of the thicket of his past, as depicted in a surreal combat scene that doesn’t seem to attach itself to any recognizable war except the one inside his head.

Lee is still feeling his way as a producer. As his director, he hired Jordan Cheryba, whom he discovered working at Food Lion. (Langhorne, meanwhile, taught his children at day care.)

“Mostly, Jordan talked to the actors, and I talked to Jordan,” Lee said. “The only real obstacle was the dance dream sequence.”

This showed the lead characters dancing in the clouds, a concept they first resisted.

“They said, ‘We’re actors, not dancers,’” Lee laughed. “But they got into it eventually.”

Lee calls the film “my analyzation of the life force, having dealt with meantal health issues myself within my family. My brother committed suicide.”

His hope is that “In and Out of Mind” will cause its audience to connect with the characters, rather than cause them to be frightened or repelled by the characters’ illnesses.

“We’ll have the first public showing on First Friday in May,” Lee said, “but I already showed it to a group of mental health professionals.”

And their reaction?

“For the longest time after it was over, they just sort of sat there,” he said.