Faith Walk

Director: Peter Fleisher
Starring: Kristin Dickerson, Peter Fleisher
Distributor: Other
Runtime: 103 mins. Reviewed in Sep 2022
Reviewer: Fr Peter Malone msc

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Rating notes: Very mild themes

Camino De Santiago Faith Walk with Kristin and Peter is a new documentary that follows husband and wife Kristin Dickerson and Peter Fleisher as they embark on Spain’s ancient 760km pilgrimage to the remains of Saint James, apostle of Jesus.

Walking the Camino has become popular over the past 20 years in English-speaking countries. It is the pilgrimage path from the French foot of the Pyrenees, across the Pyrenees and travelling northern Spain to the city of Santiago, the Cathedral where, allegedly, the apostle James is buried. It has been a pilgrimage destination for centuries.

In 2011, Emilio Estevez popularised the Camino for American and world audiences with his fiction feature film, The Way, starring his father, Martin Sheen. And, there have been many books, film documentaries. This film is an American experience.

Husband and wife of 10 years, Kristin and Peter (bushy-beard and looking like a bushranger) decide to take the time to reflect on their lives and make some spiritual decisions. However, they also took a camera and, to great visual effect, a drone. Which means that this is a record of the Camino which is highly personal but also extraordinarily visual. On their return from Spain to the US, the couple worked on editing the film, incorporating a great deal of talk to camera during the pilgrimage but also taking the opportunity of reflecting on the experience and its aftermath eight months later.

Kristin and Peter have a basic kind of faith, not church-focused, indications of Jesus in the Gospel, but using God-language. This is a very human/spiritual pilgrimage that many audiences who have no religious affiliations can appreciate.

On the one hand, we are invited, especially by Kristin, to share what happened at each phase of their walking, burdens, some illness, some emotional crises, wise advice from fellow pilgrims, some music and singing, wise words from a priest, welcome by some nuns at one of the centres, Kristin’s self-reflection on spiritual crises, spiritual growth. And, she is supported, genially, by Peter.

On the other hand, this is a rather beautiful travelogue. Each step of the way is recorded, particular days of the walk, always the name of the town visited, special features such as churches, monasteries, statues, cathedrals, a cross of iron in the countryside, the variety of welcomes at the hostels. So, an extraordinary range of pictures of the countryside, mountainous, plains, small towns, bridges and aqueducts, monasteries and church interiors.

One of the advantages of listening to Kristin and Peter if an audience is contemplating the Camino, is that they can understand something of what will happen, spiritual growth. The other is the advantage of viewing so many places, so many landmarks, that the countryside of northern Spain comes alive.