New movie narrates experiences on the Camino

Friday, Sep. 12, 2014

PARK CITY – The documentary Walking the Camino: Six Ways to Santiago, an award-winning documentary film by Lydia B. Smith, will have public viewings  Sept. 12-14 as part of the Park City Film Series.

 The film has been listed of top 10  documentaries of 2014; it focuses on the experience of people who have traveled the Camino de Santiago, the pilgrimage route from southern France to the shrine of St. James the Great in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia in northwestern Spain. According to legend, this apostle traveled throughout the Iberian Peninsula to bring Christianity to the Celtic peoples. In 44 AD he was beheaded in Jerusalem; his remains are entombed in Galicia’s cathedral.

The Camino de Santiago has been a pilgrimage route for more than 1,000 years; it typically takes 30 days to complete. 

 Mary Ann Lokey, a Saint Joseph the Worker parishioner, has walked this route.

“I heard that if you do the Camino you will receive an indulgence,” said Lokey. “The experience is just simply unique. If you have your heart open it is an experience that will change your life.”

Lokey took two trips to Spain to complete the Camino.

“I am an older retired woman, but I knew that I had to do that pilgrimage,” she said. “It helped me to be in peace with myself.”

For Monsignor Robert J. Bussen, pastor of Christ the King Parish in Cedar City, who walked the Camino in 2011, the experience was about learning to trust that “you are in the hands of God and it is God that is leading you, God who protects you, God who is teaching you lessons you didn’t know you needed to learn. Maps are irrelevant, reservations absurd. Follow the arrows and the Lord will get you where He needs you to be that night. Miss an arrow, stray from the Camino and angels will lead you back,” he wrote while describing his pilgrimage experience.

In the documentary Walking the Camino: Six Ways to Santiago people from different backgrounds narrate their experiences, according to the film’s publicity information:

 ‘Annie from Los Angeles’ comes face-to-face with her own innate competitiveness, especially when the Camino’s intense physical challenge starts to take its toll on her. 

‘Misa,’ a health and sports student from Denmark, considers herself to be spiritual but not religious. She sets out to travel alone to become more connected with herself, but when she meets William, her intentions get pushed aside.

 ‘Tomás,’ a 30-something, was torn between kite boarding on the coast or “hiking” the Camino. He chose the Camino because it was more of a physical challenge. His biggest challenge becomes the immense physical pain that he experiences. He must learn to persevere as the struggle to complete the Camino becomes more painful with every step.

‘Tatiana’ is a French 26-year-old single mother who sets out for the Camino because of her devotion to God. She brings her brother Alexis and 3-year-old son along with her. Her quest to seek a richer relationship with God is tested as she is forced to face the problems in the relationships with her brother. 

  ‘Sam,’ a Brazilian woman in her 30s, is desperate to find something that will  turn her unhappy life around. Leaving everything she knew in Rio de Janeiro, purging her life of nearly all possessions, she fled with a one-way ticket to Spain. Suffering from clinical depression, she decides to throw away all of her prescribed medication, trusting that the Camino – the meditative act of walking, the nature, and the people met along the way – will restore the balance to her body’s chemistry.

‘Jack’ and ‘Wayne’ are two well-traveled Canadian retirees. Wayne, 65, is a recent widower who walks to honor his wife, and Jack, 73, is an Episcopal priest who performed the funeral for Wayne’s wife.

WHAT: Documentary: Walking the Camino: Six Ways to Santiago

WHEN: Sept. 12-14; Friday and Saturday 8 p.m., Sunday, 6 p.m.

WHERE: The Prospector, 2175 Sidewinder Drive, Park City 

For information call 435-615-8291.