Wesley Carey: Walking with Freedom

A few weeks ago, we watched the film "Walking with Freedom" in class. The film follows a man whose trail name is Lion King as he hikes the Appalachian Trail in its entirety. Throughout the film, we see many examples of ideas that we have discussed in class, such as communitas and liminality. At one point in the film, Lion King is looking for shelter as it is about to rain. He ends up finding some cover and meets some other hikers and shares a drink with them. To me, this is a good example of communitas, as it shows good fellowship between hikers who don't know each other. In one moment, they're strangers, and in the next they're drinking buddies.

Trail names are a good example of liminality, as people are stripped of their former identities and are rebranded with a unique name that has a special significance on the trail. The best illustration of liminality to me, however, was towards the end when Lion King was interviewing another hiker as they were about to embark on their final couple days of hiking. The hiker talked about how different it was to be on the trail versus the real world, and how he was scared to complete the hike. Through his description, we get a clear sense of how the trail represents a liminal state for the hikers.