I favorably reviewed “Walking the Camino” here on the blog, and over at 77 Square I did an interview with its director, Lydia B. Smith. The film is a  lovely documentary following six people walking the 500-mile Camino el Santiago in the north of Spain.

Smith was an interesting interview — while the film is very internal and spiritual minded, the road to make it was a labored and physical one. She spent three frustrating years with 300 hours of good footage she had shot in Spain, and no funds to turn it into a film, let alone distribute it. Eventually, she reached out to enough people who could donate, including high school friends she hadn’t seen in years, to finish the film. It’s become one of the top grossing documentaries of 2014, despite the fact that it doesn’t have a distributor like Sony Pictures Classics or Sundance Selects backing it up.

Smith is in Madison all weekend, and will host post-show Q&As after the 6:55 p.m. screening Saturday night and 1:50 p.m., 4:20 p.m., and 6:55 p.m. screenings on Sunday. With its gorgeous scenery, it’s a film well worth seeing on the big screen.

Read the interview here.