Friday 20 November 2009

The Human Experience


On Wednesday night six of us went to see the film 'The Human Experience' in Wrexham, North Wales (little bit of a journey!). I'm sure a lot of you know the film is a documentary about two brothers' search for an answer to the meaning of human existence, interviewing those they meet along the way. Their experiences consist of: sleeping homeless in New York for a week and interviewing the homeless that they meet, travelling on the Pan American highway down to Peru, where they help out in a children's orphanage, and with two other friends flying to Ghana, where they are taken into the life of the community, talk to some patients dying of AIDS (including two young mothers), and also visit a community of lepers. Along the way, the brothers and their friends have to come to terms with their own past, with its own hardships. The main character Jeff has particular difficulty coming to terms with the fact that he grew up under a violent and abusive father, and he struggles to learn forgiveness and hope through the experiences he and his brother undergo.

Made by Grassroots, the same people who did the priest promo 'Fishers of Men,' this latest film, as well as having a good message, is beautifully shot, and has a nice soundtrack. At the moment three of the guys involved are touring America and Europe showing the film in venues where they are asked. Hopefully, they said, it will be on DVD soon. I hope they continue to make films that present a Catholic understanding of the world in a professional and engaging way.

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