The legendary filmmaker Werner Herzog once said that if you wanted to become a filmmaker, you should skip film school. Instead, he said, you should make a journey of 5,000 kilometers alone, on foot, "let's say from Madrid to Kiev." "While you are walking," said Herzog, "you would learn much more about filmmaking and what it truly involves than you ever would sitting in a classroom. Your experiences would be the very opposite of academic knowledge, for academia is the death of cinema." In 2006, I decided to test Herzog's idea. In March I began the long walk from Madrid to Kiev. I carried basic essentials, a tent and a sleeping bag, notebooks, and some camera gear. The walk brought me through Spain, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Poland, and the Ukraine. I arrived in Kiev on 30 August 2006, nearly six months after I had started. On this site I documented my adventures through journal entries and photographs. You can still read those entries about the places I saw and the people I met. I funded the project through the generous donations of my Fellow Travelers, hundreds of people who contributed money to my journey. In exchange, I sent them postcards from my route and will be putting their names in the end credits of my film. I'm currently engaged in editing the footage I shot during the walk. The best parts of it will make up my first documentary feature, to be called More Shoes.

home the plan watch trailer contact fellow travelers donate - - - walking journal: Dec. '05 - Jan. '06. initial idea, planning and preparations February 2006 UIMA event, "Ithaka", departure March 2006 Madrid, rural Spain, and the cross into France April 2006 the heart of France May 2006 Paris, Belgium, and Holland June 2006 Germany during the World Cup July 2006 Berlin and through Poland August 2006 Eastward into Ukraine September 2006 Kiev at last November 2006 notes on coming home - - - writing, photographs and video © Lee Kazimir all rights reserved, etc. etc.