This afternoon Jennifer and I did our final Q&A in Carson City, near Lake Tahoe, in Nevada.

It was our 48th Q&A screening in 44 different towns/cities in 51 days.

We attended screenings in these states and provinces:

• Arizona
• New Mexico
• Colorado
• Texas
• Florida
• Ohio
• Indiana
• Illinois
• Wisconsin
• Washington DC
• Virginia
• New York
• Ontario (province of Canada)
• British Columbia (province of Canada)
• Washington
• Oregon
• California
• Nevada

I’ve driven 4,314 miles.
I’ve rented five vehicles.
We’ve taken 56 Ubers.
We’ve taken 12 internal flights.

You might think we’re utterly exhausted but actually we’re not.

Camino walking legend Johnnie Walker joined us for our NY, Canadian, Seattle, Portland OR and most of the Californian screenings. He was a big hit with the crowds. They loved him!

And he energised us.

But what’s really kept us going day to day, screening to screening, has been the audiences. Most of those 48 screenings were sellouts. In Ottawa we had a sellout crowd of 650. In San Rafael we had a sellout crowd of 340. Dan the manager there said he could have sold twice that number of tickets.

So even though it’s been a long haul for Jennifer and me, and Johnnie too – it’s been worth it! We’ve met some wonderful people, many of whom have become friends – and we’ve seen first hand the impact the film is having on people.

Before we left home we were concerned that the North American audiences maybe wouldn’t “get” the film. That’s turned out to be something we need not have worried about. The audience response throughout has been even more demonstrative than in Australia. And the Q&As have been vigorous and they’ve asked some fascinating questions.

There hasn’t been one screening where the audience hasn’t clapped twice – one when the film cuts to black at the end, and then again at the end of the credit roll. It’s been incredibly humbling – but also gratifying.

Behind all this has been the engine room of Paul Hudson, head of US based Outsider Pictures, and our Executive Producer Marc Wooldridge, head of Maslow Entertainment in Australia.

Tomorrow we drive from Carson City, Nevada, to Los Angeles where on Monday we fly out to Germany to meet up with another of our Executive Producers, Rudi Wiesmeier. The film is getting a major theatrical release in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

It premieres in Munich on April 8th, and Jennifer and I then begin a 12-15 city Q&A tour throughout Germany. Then we’re coming back to North America in early May for further screenings.

This film has a life of its own.
It’s now running on what we call: Pilgrim Power!

For the first time in nearly 4 weeks, we have a day off!

We’ve been going flat chat since the end of January – pretty much a new city, a new screening, every day.. Here’s where we’ve had screenings so far –

• Phoenix
• Sedona (2 screenings)
• Flagstaff
• Albuquerque
• Santa Fe
• Denver
• Flat iron Crossing
• Dallas
• Austin
• San Antonio
• Houston
• Jacskonville (screening cancelled – Valentine’s Day!)
• Orlando
• Miami (two screenings)
• Cincinatti
• Columbus
• Indianapolis
• Chicago (two screenings)
• Milwaukee
• Washington
• Arlington

That’s 2,470 miles.
In 24 days.

I drove all this except for Cincinnati/Columbus/Indiapolis – these sectors we were very kindly driven by Brian and Michelle Coleman – 283miles. It took a huge burden off me, plus we had a great deal of fun Cruisin’ with the Colemans!

From here we go to New York, then into Canada where we have sellout screenings in Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver. From Vancouver we drop back into the US where we have a screening in Seattle. Then Portland Oregon – then we shift on down into California.

Johnnie /walker joins us in a couple of days now in New York, and he’ll be doing Q&As with us up to March 23.

It’s been interesting seeing the differences and similarites between the Australian audiences and the US audience.

Overall, the US audiences have been more demonstrative, more effusive in their praise of the film, they are happy to discuss spiritual matters more openly, and they are more interested in the transformative aspects of the Camino.

There are some questions the US audiences ask that are the same as the Australian audiences. They are:

• How is your knee now?
  (Still buggered)
• Why are the trails so empty?
  (Because most days we started shooting at 7pm or so to get the magic hour light – and most pilgrims have bunked down in their alburgues by this time of the evening.)
• Why did I cast Chris Haywood as myself?
  (Because he’s a great actor)
• To Jennifer: Has he really changed?
  (Jennifer: Yes. He now divides his life into the years before the Camino and the years after the Camino.)
• What’s your favourite part of the Camino?
  (The Meseta,)

How are we holding up?

It’s been tough at time, I have to admit. All the driving, no real time to rest – but what’s kept us going are the wonderful people we’re meeting. Pilgrims really are extraordinary people!

Finally, we have a place where you can go to find showtimes and buy tickets for the Q&A tour – and when the film opens in general release on March 7th, you can use this link to find your nearest cinema too –

Go to the website’s home page – find the SHOWTIMES tab on the menu bar, click on that, choose your country, search your zip code, and there it is!

Sorry it’s taken so long – it’s a difficult and time consuming process getting commitments from exhibitors to play a small Australian movie about a stubborn man walking across Spain!

Yes, but is it Tuesday or is it Monday?
This Q&A tour is becoming a bit of a blur. Here are the screenings so far:

• Phoenix – SELL OUT
• Sedona x 2 screenings – both SELL OUTS
• Flagstaff – SELL OUT
• Albuquerque – 95% full
• Santa Fe – SELL OUT
• Denver – SELL OUT
• Flat Iron Crossing – SELL OUT
• Dallas – 95% full
• Austin – SELL OUT
• San Antonio – SELL OUT
• Houston – SELL OUT
• Orlando – 90% full
• Miami Nth – 90% full
• Miami Sth – SELL OUT

So across 15 screenings in 17 days so far we’ve had 11 sell outs, and those that didn’t sell out had only the front two rows close to the screen left unsold. The screening tonight in Miami’s Coral Gables Art Cinema sold out the first day tickets went on sale. It was a 141 seat cinema, but they put in extra chairs to cater for the overflow, making it 150 seats in all.

We flew from Australia to Phoenix (8,809 miles), and have taken 2 internal flights totalling 1800 miles. Most of our travel though has been by car – with me driving…

In 17 days I’ve driven 1875 miles, or 3,017 kms through Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Texas and Florida.

How are we holding up?

Overall, pretty darn well. There have been a few times in the past 17 days when we’ve felt like we’ve been newly exhumed – but other than that we’re having a huge amount of fun, meeting some truly remarkable and wonderful people, making new friends and catching up with old friends – but the thing that keeps us buoyed is the audiences’ response to the film.

It’s been humbling – and has far exceeded our expectations.

We have another 36 screenings to go.

Here is an updated list of screenings on our US and Canada Q&A Tour, as of Feb 15.

Please remember that the film opens in general release on March 7, so even though your town or city may not be on this list, the film becomes available in cinemas across the US and Canada on March 7.

Camino legend Johnnie Walker will be joining us on the tour – arriving into New York on Feb 27 and doing Q&As after screenings with us right the way through to March 23rd.

Also please note that this is not going to be available on Netflix or any other streamer in the foreseeable future. Sorry. But if you want to see this movie you’ll have to go see it in a cinema. But if I can humbly say: it’s worth it! The film is a big screen experience. It really puts you on the Camino.

So here’s the list.
There’s still a lot of gaps, but we’re filling these as fast as we can –