Dear Caminoheads,

6 years ago, on a day like today, Phil got a news that made him super happy… (and so Annie!!) but I really really enjoyed reading what was all about before the film circulated into social media, and somehow took us to the man… the one and only Felipe…

So, I am posted below for us all to enjoy!

“Wouldn’t it be cool if we could document this” Loves,

Cris

 

 

Big News from the Southwest

Good morning! Annie, our intrepid producer (IP) of “Phil’s Camino” documentary announced yesterday that our film was accepted at the prestigious South by Soutwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas. This is great news for it was a biggie on her list of venues to show the film and to get it out for folks to see. So that is where the Grand Premire of “the little film that can” will be this spring. A big hurrah!

I know about nothing about this process of promoting a film but we are doing it and I am learning. Annie did a lot of work on the promotion of the Camino documentary “Walking the Camino” with Lydia B. Smith over the last few years. And she is game to ramrod this effort for my documentary. So, there are film festivals all over the country and we will be there at various ones. We will put up news of those or links to news as we go along.

Festivals that we talked about over the phone last evening were Seattle WA, Dubuque IA, John Hopkins in Maryland, Nashville TN. So in the coming months check with your local outfit and see if they are showing it this spring or summer. This whole thing has just started rolling so who knows what will happen. Hopefully it will make a big splash and do the basic job that it is supposed to do.

So Felipe, what is the basic idea of the film and what is the job that it is supposed to accomplish? Right, OK, let’s tackle that while the coffee is still hot. Maybe it would be good to look at the genesis of the whole thing. The first that I can remember there was a conversation between myself and Dr Zucker, my rehab doc at Swedish Cancer Center, and one of us said, “Wouldn’t it be cool if we could document this.” This being the upcoming trip to Spain to walk the Camino de Santiago which was had just opened up as a reality for us. It just seemed like a innocent thing to say, “Wouldn’t it be cool…”.

But that started the whole show right there. So the basic idea will have to be connected to that conversation and that sentiment. OK, it is the story of a cancer patient who used the opportunity of his disease to springboard into the understanding of life and love. Wow, I just came up with that! This is almost the kind of stuff that someone else should write about.

So what if we run with that for the moment, can we come up with an answer to the second question of what is the job the film is supposed to accomplish. In my view it should inspire, encourage and motivate a patient (hate that word) to get outside of his or her comfort zone and try things that maybe they were told they couldn’t do or shouldn’t even attempt. Maybe instead of walking across Spain they need to walk ten miles, or one mile or ten feet. And it is not about walking either, it is about reaching out in whatever manner. It’s a lot about getting outside the disease even though OK you still have the disease, I get that, I’m trying to live that.

Thanks for following me here. I don’t know if we got as concise as we should but we got a start on answering those questions. And additionally perhaps we can set up some system to better inform you about movie news. I would love to talk Annie into a short once a week post here to give us the latest and greatest. Well, time marches on and things unfold in the place and time that they should, thank you St James. And this seems like a most exciting spring coming up.

Love, Felipe.

 

Written by Phil/Felipe/The Boss/The General, re-posted by Cris