Films

“Murmurings of the Land” is a portrait of the people, animals and other beings of the Orphan Wisdom farm. Narrated by Jenkinson, this film is part poem, part instruction, and asks the question: “What’s worth doing, given the troubles of our times?”.

The director of the film, Mattias Olsson, has previously conducted several interviews with Stephen for the Campfire Podcast. This is the first time he’s visited the Orphan Wisdom farm, and it’s the first time he’s made a film with Jenkinson.

This three day teaching is part wonder, part battle cry and part strategy for the beginnings of a deeply wrought human life which makes peace with the ravaged world, finds a home along the old abandoned road, and honours the grief soaked longing for those things and those people we thought we lost. This is what generations to come deserve from us, this labour, and it might yet fashion from us a generation of ancestors worth coming from.

This piece of poetry was written by Stephen Jenkinson and recorded and arranged by Gregory Hoskins for the Campfire Stories film “The Art of Slowing Down Time”.

Many among us now are crazy for meanings, and crazed by seeking them out. The meanings of life aren’t inherited. What is inherited is the mandate to make meanings of life by how we live. The endings of life give life’s meanings a chance to show. The beginning of the end of our order, our way, is now in view. This isn’t punishment, any more than dying is a punishment for being born. Instead, the world whispers: All we need of you is that you be human, now. Our work is to sort out what being human should be in such a time.

Lost Nation Road is a glimpse behind-the-scenes of a soulful mystery train, an ode to wonder, and a love letter for the willingness to know endings featuring Stephen Jenkinson and Gregory Hoskins.

For years, Stephen Jenkinson led the palliative care department at a major Canadian hospital. Sitting at the deathbeds of over 1000 people, he discovered again and again “a wretched anxiety” around death. He recognized this death phobia it is not a personal issue, but a symptom of a larger cultural absence, including the loss of elders. Soon after Stephen and his wife Nathalie opened the Orphan Wisdom School – a learning house for “elders-in-training.” This fall, he’s heading on the road one more time, alongside veteran Canadian musician Gregory Hoskins for the ‘Nights of Grief and Mystery’ tour. LOST NATION ROAD weaves a compelling case for what happened to elders in this culture, the consequence on youth today, and what can be done for the generations to come.

The relentless pursuit of self reliance and self improvement is rooted in our lost connection to common stories, homeland and ancestors that bind and unite us. The times now demand that we recognize the world’s suffering in our own.

A faithful document of a band’s first encounter performing material meant for the road—but kept from the road—for two years. Shot over 5 hours on December 12, 2021, in a 125 year old factory that is home to Dead Starling Studio, the film features material from 2020’s ROUGH GODS as well as a reimagined piece and 2 new works. 100% live and handmade, shot on 3 iPhone Pros, and multitrack recorded.

Griefwalker is a National Film Board of Canada feature documentary film, directed by Tim Wilson. It is a lyrical, poetic portrait of Stephen Jenkinson’s work with dying people. Filmed over a twelve year period, Griefwalker shows Jenkinson in teaching sessions with doctors and nurses, in counseling sessions with dying people and their families, and in meditative and often frank exchanges with the film’s director while paddling a birch bark canoe about the origins and consequences of his ideas for how we live and die.