FLIC film features pilgrimage across Spain
Caleb M. Soptelean
Lindsay Thompson speaks following a showing of her movie, “Travel Light,” on Saturday afternoon. The movie is about a hike on Spain’s “Camino de Santiago.”
Caleb M. Soptelean
Jim Ereaux talksfollowing a showing of his short movie, The Walk, on Saturday afternoon. The movie, which won for best picture in the documentary short category, is about a hike on northern England’s “Coast to Coast” trail.
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POLSON – The Camino de Santiago is the way of pilgrims.
That’s the message of Travel Light, a movie shown Saturday at the Flathead Lake International Cinemafest. The film earned the 2017 FLIC People's Choice award.
Lindsay Thompson produced the documentary based on a 37-day, 500-mile hike that she took from St. Jean- Pied-de-Port in southwest France through Santiago de Compostela, Spain, onto Finisterra along the Atlantic Ocean. She hiked with three friends.
Their trek started in mountains, went through some flat land and then finished in more mountains. The Camino de Santiago, or Way of James, ends in Santiago de Compostela, where legend has it that the remains of the Biblical Apostle James were buried and a cathedral built in his honor.
Thompson and her friends suffered from various aches and pains along the way, and one had to cut short her hike, but the group got to meet a number of interesting pilgrims too. The film includes several interviews with pilgrims the group met along the way, and one interview with an alchemist.
Each night they stayed in an “albergues,” or hostel, and drank wines from the region. Thompson said the trails were first built by Celts and then added onto by Romans. Pilgrims, or peregrinos, she said, tend to find answers or direction for their lives on the camino.
After reaching Santiago de Compostela, the group enjoyed what one described as “Catholic Disneyland.” Alas, a much-anticipated party on the Day of St. James is canceled in the wake of a train crash.
The group ended their hike at Finisterra at a point overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.
Thompson said she heard about the trail in her high school Spanish class and had never backpacked more than two days before embarking on the camino.
She and two friends she met on the trail would like to hike it again.
Next time they may skip the trail’s flat mid-section or hike when it’s cooler, as it can get up to 110 degrees or so in the summer months.
The film earned an honorable mention for best picture/documentary short among more than 60 films shown throughout the weekend at Showboat Cinemas.
A full list of award winners is available on the FLIC Facebook page.
