[Gocamino] Camino DVDs

[Blaroli@aol.com]

Hello you all,
One day in 2004 while attending a Pilgrim's Mass at the Santiago Cathedral  I 
saw someone at one of the altar's side railing that looked  familiar. It 
turned out to be the British cineaste Richard Attenborough, and someone  mentioned 
that he was making a movie about the Camino.
You may remember that he made the epic Oscar-winning movie "Ghandi" some 
years ago; the success of that world-wide impressive blockbuster earned him a 
knighthood and world renown. 
Well, it follows that it takes a master movie maker to make a masterful film 
about the Camino.
I have about 20 Camino DVDs on my shelves, in all languages and from various 
countries, but, plainly and simply,  none can compare with the one made under 
the auspices of  "Sir" Richard.  It is called in English "Within the Way 
Without" (Tres en el Camino, in Spanish.... that is, three on the Camino) and it 
was directed by Laurence Boulting.  Reportedly, the Galician Xunta and  Galician 
TV cooperated fully. Richard Attenborough himself narrates the film and it 
and was its driving force.
The  DVD follows, from their home countries through the French Camino and 
back , three entirely different and totally absorbing pilgrims: a young woman 
from Brasil, an Haiku young female poet from Japan and a late middle-age retired 
fellow from Holland who walked all the way from Amsterdam.  (What is it with 
these Dutch pilgrims who impels so many to walk all the way from their 
country?).
Unlike the other Camino DVDs, this one juxtaposes and intersperses brief 
shots of the three pilgrims as they walk the Camino with their family lives and 
customs in their home country, both before they went on the Camino and after 
they returned home.
The shots and the brief glimpses of the places, and the people, in the Camino 
that we all know are stunning...... and profound.  And while pilgrims' 
experiences and impressions are quite and distinctively personal, these three 
pilgrims manage to universalize theirs into our own: from the soccer-and samba 
driven sun-drenched pretty Brasilian who most unwillingly comes face to face with 
the quietude of her own soul, to the Japanese poet who acquires a mange 
infection and uses it to bring down  to size her belief that Japanese are the 
cleanest people on earth (her haikus and her attempts to communicate in Spanish are 
precious, as are her heartfelt observations:  we humans "have fouled our nest", 
for instance). The middle age Dutchman who yanks out his spirit onto a new 
determined life from the muddle of middle-age sense of unfullfillment, 
represents, I think, a great many of us.
And yet, these three people were actual pilgrims on the Camino.  The shooting 
of their home countries references and their lives after they returned home 
was done after they had completed the pilgrimage.  The filming of the scenery 
throughout, the churches, the albergues, etc., is stunning.  And as though all 
that were not enough, at the end there is the fireworks display of Dec. 31, 
2004, at the close of the Holy Door and the Holy Year, viewed from Plaza 
Quintana!.  This part of the DVD just floored me, more so because I was there when it 
happened, and I knew then, as I know now, that in my life I'll never again 
live such majestically glorious moments.
A member of this list mentioned the DVD here a few months ago, and when I saw 
in the message Richard Attenborough's name I asked  the member for 
information about getting the DVD which he sent right away.  I ordered it from the Saint 
James Confraternity by computer and it arrived in an astonishing five days!  
The cost for the DVD, including shipping charges came to about 27 U.S. 
Dollars. The DVD plays everywhere, is 150 minutes long and is narrated in English. I 
think it can be ordered by going to:
 www.csj.org.uk  (you can also send an e-mail to:  office at csj.org.uk)

When in Seville for Holy Week last month I got the latest Camino DVD produced 
by TV people in Spain (RED ES).  While it cannot compare with the British one 
it is very, very nice. It is called "Camino de Santiago Paso a Paso por la 
Ruta Jacobea " (Camino, step by step on the Xacobean Route) and it is a lovingly 
straight showing and description of the Camino principal stages, monuments, 
albergues etc. And, ... no, it is most definitely not a "travelogue", although 
it does follow the French Camino step by step, more or less  (Kat and David, a 
copy is on its way to you).  The DVD is about one hour long,  costs $9.95 
Euros in most bookstores,  can be followed in English and several other languages 
and it plays in both U.S. and European DVD players. (The jacket shows a 
website:  www.caminodesantiago.com.es)

I'll be going to Seville next  Tuesday for a week (for a little R & R); if  
there is anything that I can look up, or get, for you while I'm there I should 
be delighted to do so. Without the Holy Week oceans and oceans of people, it 
will be a delight to go around the lovely looking for thing Camino, and 
otherwise.

Warm regards,

Rosina