Pilgrim

Cauleen Smith’s pilgrimage to utopian sites across the United States is soundtracked by Alice Coltrane’s composition "One for the Father" (1978). The Sai Anantam Ashram, founded in California in 1975 after Coltrane experienced astral projections, is one of Smith’s destinations. The Watts Towers are also featured in Smith’s film, built from found materials by sculptor Simon Rodia in Los Angeles over the course of thirty years. Smith then moves on to The Watervliet Shaker village in New York state, home to Rebecca Cox Jackson in the early 1830s, another visionary who sought expressions of spirituality outside of accepted religious structures.