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Three Burnaby 'heathens' filming their spiritual journey

The Camino de Santiago. An 800-kilometre spiritual pilgrimage across northern Spain to a far-off cathedral, the supposed gravesite of apostle St. James the Great.
We Three Heathens photo
From left, Will Ross, Devan Scott and Daniel Jeffery – three graduates of SFU’s film program – are heading to Spain in September to film their 800-kilometre trek on the Camino de Santiago, a Christian pilgrimage to St. James’ supposed burial site. The secular filmmakers are eager to meet others taking the journey and see how the trip impacts their own opinions on religion.

The Camino de Santiago. An 800-kilometre spiritual pilgrimage across northern Spain to a far-off cathedral, the supposed gravesite of apostle St. James the Great.

In search of enlightenment, thousands of Christians annually make the extensive walk to what the Romans called “Finisterrae,” Latin for “the end of the world.”

So why would a secular trio of Burnaby 20-somethings want to embark on such an arduous trek across the land of the setting sun? To make a film, of course.

Will Ross, Devan Scott and Daniel Jeffery – all recent graduates of SFU’s film program – are setting out to make a documentary about the expedition, combining contrasting filmic styles to illustrate the diverse viewpoints and experiences of themselves and others on the two-month journey.

“We’ll be meeting hundreds of people who are at a time in their lives when they’re specifically seeking answers for themselves,” said Jeffery. “It’s a really ripe time to connect with people and expose those things about them.

“Ourselves, we’ll be going through something similar.”

The idea for the feature-length doc came six years ago courtesy of an internet forum where Scott saw one user’s deeply personal photo journal of the trip – it wasn’t just a slideshow of landmarks. There was something more to it.

“It got me thinking, it would make a great subject for a documentary. I’m going to do this someday,” said Scott.

“The climax of it wasn’t that he got to this beautiful cathedral at the end of this big, symbolic journey – the climax was, ‘I arrived there a different person than I was at the start,’” added Ross.

While none of the guys are religious – hence the film’s title, We Three Heathens – they each have an anthropological interest in how widespread beliefs came to be.

For Scott, this isn’t his first foray into spiritual cinema: He, along with two Catholic friends, spent four days in a monastery filming a documentary on monks who had removed themselves from mainstream society.

“It gave me an opportunity to really see the lifestyle and kind of demystified a lot of it for me,” said Scott. “It got me fascinated with the culture behind it and the thousands of years of history created because of this.”

“For me, the interesting thing about religion is that most of the great things that people get out of religion are things that I think I get too,” said Ross. “The interesting thing is what makes that common ground between people.”

Rather than approach the trip like travelogue documentaries, all three will carry cameras and film from their own perspectives, often migrating as a group but sometimes wandering in different directions.

“As much as I expect us to be a group most of the time, I expect it to be a really solitary trip – that’s where I expect tensions to come up,” said Ross. “When you do this sort of thing, you’re in your head so much, you’re thinking all the time and you have nothing to do but talk. Of course you’re going to butt heads with other people.”

“That will be the reality TV angle of the trip,” said Jeffery with a laugh.

To make it across the Atlantic in September, the guys have started an Indiegogo campaign to raise $10,000, with stretch goals in $2,000 increments up to $20,000. While they’re close to reaching their base goal, any extra funds will aid in making the film as best as they possibly can.

“If we get $20,000, we can make it with a better camera, hire assistant editors and have more money for the sound mix,” said Scott. They are also buying other equipment so they can send footage to crew members back home, who will log the clips.

All three are going into the 60-day trip with certain expectations: Their patience will be tried, their values will be questioned and the ways they each see the world will likely shift. But regardless of how things go across their routes to St. James, they know they’re coming back with a film unlike their previous works.

“I expect to, at the very minimum, meet some interesting people, investigate why they’re doing what they’re doing and create a film that will communicate those ideas to other people,” said Scott.

“I would hope that through our own style and guerrilla tenacity that we’re able to make something that does resonate with people,” added Jeffery. “No matter what happens, we’ll all grow as filmmakers, but I hope that we go through some actual real personal development on the journey – hopefully for the better.”

To donate to the Indiegogo campaign, visit indiegogo.com/projects/we-three-heathens-a-documentary.

@jacobzinn