A student-produced documentary exploring the hymn “A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief” and its connection to global service at Brigham Young University premiered March 5 at 7 p.m. in the Varsity Theatre.
The premiere celebrated years of student work and the power of storytelling to connect faith, music and service worldwide. The documentary compiles eight mini-documentaries produced over eight years by BYU journalism and advertising students.
“The primary goal of the documentary is to inspire others to pick up the torch and to serve,” Allen Kreutzkamp, who sponsored the project, said. “That’s ultimately what ‘A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief’ is about … when we serve one another in the unique ways that only we can, that’s when the gospel of Jesus Christ comes alive.”
The film features professors and students from multiple programs across campus, including the BYU College of Engineering, College of Nursing, Department of German and Russian, Religious Education, Ballroom Dance, Living Legends and BYU Athletics.
The documentary shows dancers rendering service by sharing their cultural talents and performing songs that uplift heavy hearts.
It also highlights BYU students meeting essential needs by providing clean water, food and other basic resources to communities in need.
The film goes beyond addressing temporal hardship alone; it also focuses on communities that are nourished spiritually as well as physically, as volunteers use music, culture and service to mend hearts and strengthen hope.
“You see a huge diversity of talent not just in front of the camera, but behind the camera as well,” said Alex Sanders, a student who worked on the project’s first segment in London. “The Lord was able to use the diversity of talent that we have at BYU to put this together.”
As part of the project, students traveled more than 70,000 miles to eight countries and interviewed nearly 100 people. The production included about six terabytes of footage and more than 100 hours of recorded video.
“Putting together a documentary like this does not come together in a couple of days, especially considering all the different places we went,” Ethan Porter, BYU journalism alumnus, said. “It really is a labor of love and something that all of the students are proud of.”
Porter worked on the segment of the documentary exploring the hymn's sixth verse and its connection to the Riga Ghetto in Latvia, where thousands of Jews were imprisoned by Nazi forces during World War II and endured immense hardship and loss.
“There is a tonal shift in our section, and I think that is reflective of the hymn itself,” Porter said. “It echoes the suffering of Christ on the cross and the Atonement, and the ability to look beyond that suffering and see that because of Him, there is still so much beauty and hope in this world.”
In addition to England and Latvia, other segments of the documentary were filmed in the United States, Dominican Republic, Chile, Germany, Ecuador and Denmark.
The final verse of the hymn and the conclusion of the documentary take place at the original Christus statue in Copenhagen.
“I really love that the final verse of the hymn depicts how the Savior is revealed to the man,” Sanders said. “As we present ourselves to the Lord and ask Him where He wants us to serve, we embrace the Savior and ultimately become His hands on the earth.”