Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Religious Music and Entertainment
Justin Skeesuck and Patrick Gray Share Incredible Bond In ‘I’ll Push You’

Justin Skeesuck and Patrick Gray Share Incredible Bond In ‘I’ll Push You’

Last updated on: October 31, 2017 at 11:48 pm by DeWayne Hamby

Justin Skeesuck and Patrick Gray Share Incredible Bond In ‘I’ll Push You’ 2017-10-31T23:48:20-04:00 DeWayne Hamby

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

I’ll Push You, which will premiere as a Fathom Events presentation on Thursday, Nov. 2, is a documentary highlighting the incredible bond between two lifelong friends who travel the 500-mile journey of the Camino de Santiago. For 35 days, Justin Skeesuck and Patrick Gray travel mountains, valleys, and muddy roads made even more difficult by Justin’s paralysis due to a degenerative neurological disease.

Justin Skeesuck and Patrick Gray tell the story of their Camino de Santiago journey in the documentary 'I"ll Push You.' Film image courtesy of WIT PR.

Justin Skeesuck and Patrick Gray tell the story of their Camino de Santiago journey in the documentary ‘I”ll Push You.’ Film image courtesy of WIT PR.

The film, which features the good, the bad and the ugly of the emotionally and physically exhausting journey, is a true story of sacrifice and love, not only between the two friends, but also other pilgrims who join them on their journey. What could possibly give these two men the energy and determination to make this trip?

Justin, Patrick and friend Terry Parish (co-director) recently spoke about their experiences on the Camino de Santiago with DeWayne Hamby in this exclusive interview.

After you decided to do the journey, at what point did you think of visually documenting it in this manner?

Patrick: I called Ed, my boss, at the hospital where I was working. When I asked for the time off for this journey, the long and short of it is that he was not thrilled at the request for six weeks off originally. But when I explained to him the dynamics between Justin and I and this journey, he got really excited. His demeanor switched to where he suddenly wanted to give me the time off to make this happen. He said, ‘I want to do everything in my power to give you the time off for six weeks as long as you’ll do everything in your power to document it on film.’ When I asked him why, he said, ‘If you don’t, you’re selfish and irresponsible. There’s too much hope not to share it.’ Thank God for foresight, because that was on our radar in any way, shape or form. So I posed the question to Justin, ‘Okay, I got time off, but I have to document this on film. Do you know anybody?’ Then he makes the connection to Terry.

Justin: Terry and I went to college together, known each other a very long time, and I approached him and met with him and his business partner, co-director Chris, and they said ‘Yeah, we’d like to be a part of this.’ So off we went. That’s how it all started.

What type of response are you getting?

Justin: It is really cool and humbling to have such a response, such a positive response from everyone. I don’t think I’ve heard anything negative at least from what I’ve gathered, which is great, what we hoped for. We’ve all worked very, very hard, especially Chris and Terry worked really, really hard for the last couple of years. So to finally have it almost out nationwide Nov. 2 is a dream come true for all of us. I don’t think we ever really thought going into this that we’d be having a movie in theaters across the country. It’s been a blessing.

Terry: We won the Audience Choice award at our first festival. People have come up to us and said that it’s been life changed. I look at that one with a grain of salt, but I can communicate at least one act where someone I know really did make some life changes after that. It was really profound and I think if it’s moving people in a more positive way toward self-reflection and self-love and love of others then it’s doing what we hoped would be accomplished. As they say, it’s landing. The scenes are landing and the message is landing.

Justin Skeesuck and Patrick Gray tell the story of their Camino de Santiago journey in the documentary 'I"ll Push You.' Film poster courtesy of WIT PR.

Justin Skeesuck and Patrick Gray tell the story of their Camino de Santiago journey in the documentary ‘I”ll Push You.’ Film poster courtesy of WIT PR.

As you’re putting it together, how hard was it to focus on the essential footage and leave the other stuff behind? What didn’t make the cut?

Terry: There are plenty of examples of that. How it came about was just reflecting on all the footage. You think hours and hours each day on two cameras was just pretty incredible, raw footage to go through. We did put together a 13-hour edit, a simple boxcar, day-to-day occurrences and then there were just decisions made about ‘What are the ones that are just emotionally really resonating?’ Chris and I would watch each one of those scenes and say, ‘That moment is important. That moment is important.’ We didn’t really assign why they were important. We just noted that they were important to us. We always have a fairly good repartee when it comes to that. We usually agree. However, I’ll give you one specific example that shows up in their book. There was a woman who showed up on the first day of their climb, her name was Lucy. She was an opera singer and she sang a beautiful English folk song that in the setting and, in the grandeur of the Pyrenees mountains, was just too perfect for words. However, once we put together all the other important moments, it was going to take us out of where we were trying to drive to get to the next place we wanted to go to in the story. As much as we wanted it in there, it was the first sacrificial lamb, where ‘I love you, darling, but you gotta’ go.’ We let her go.

When you give you to others and lay your life down for others, there’s something that comes back to you. You’re poured into as you pour out. Were you blessed as you blessed?

Patrick: Absolutely, yes. So when Justin first asked me, ‘Do you want to do this journey?,’ with the amount of history we have and the adventures we’ve done together, I said, ‘Yes, I want to do this. Why wouldn’t we? It’s another adventure story of our lives.’ I knew that there would be sacrifice, a remarkable amount of work and energy in order to make it happen, but for someone to trust me with all of that is a remarkable gift. It was the first realization of the power in letting someone love us in spite of us. Justin had invited me into his weakness and his disease and fears and the question of ‘What can I do with this?’ That’s a profound gift to give to someone. Through that, my ability to help make this journey happen, I had to do the same thing. I had to recognize that I have fears and weaknesses and things I can’t accomplish on my own. Ultimately, I can’t do this journey with Justin on my own unless I invite people into my weakness. There’s a foundation for a certain type of reciprocity to exist where this is given, to not take, the giving and receiving of love and strength and compassion and sacrifice on all fronts. People see me pouring out for Justin physically but the flip side of that is he is profoundly pushing me emotionally and spiritually. That cannot be overemphasized. That is so much of what makes life worth living, when we have those relationships that push us beyond our own limitations. That’s what this is that we have that gift we can give each other everyday of making one another better because of the love that can flourish in the midst of all of our weakness and fears and failures.

Justin, how are you doing with your health?

Justin: More over, I’m doing all right. I got air in my lungs and the sun’s out today, so I’ll take it. The disease that I have, I go periods of time where I plateau and then I digress and then I plateau and then I digress. I’ve been in a plateau stage for a little while but it’s mostly been in miniscule, small increments of digression, mostly hands. Whatever dexterity that I have, it’s still moving through. Breathing and speech and what not, so far so good. I’ll take it from where I’m at. It definitely has made me appreciate life for what it is and to be here as long as I can and do the best that I can while I’m here. I’m doing all right.

Were there moments when you just needed an extra ‘push,’ so to speak, on the journey and something put wind in your sail?

Patrick: There are a lot but one in particular is on day 27, we were by ourselves. It’s the day before the big climb with all the people showing up to help. We found ourselves completely alone. We had a late start, we’re in between waves of pilgrims going town to town. It had been several hours, we’d seen nobody, which was rare. It was rare not to see anyone. We’re on a pretty manageable hill, at least it should be, but my body is just breaking down. My body is just not having it. The long of short of it is we’re on this stretch and I can’t get Justin up the hill. We head back down the hill to take a break because I’m so exhausted. We try it again and I still can’t get Justin up this hill. Then out of nowhere we meet this girl Victoria, finally the first pilgrim we saw all day. She shows up out of nowhere and asks if she can help and she straps into the front of the chair in the harness and pulls us the next 11 miles to the town we were trying to get to. It’s in a moment of almost desperation and boom, there she is.

Justin: We about knocked her over when she asked if she could help. We were like, ‘Yes!!’

Patrick: People show up just in the nick of time, it feels like.

Were there people in your life that you drew inspiration from, to inspire you to do this for someone?

Patrick: That’s a hard question. I don’t know that I can point to any one individual aside from the way Justin has loved me, why wouldn’t I love him the same way back? I think that’s a lot of what has fueled our decisions in life in general, just the love between us. I guess I can point back to one thing and that’s the love we’re called to live, the love of Jesus, that complete and total resonation of any human sense for the sake of loving people, in pain. Whatever it is, that kind of example, I would aspire to that, I’ll never arrive. But that is probably the one example I can point to – that kind of love is the kind that I want to model.

Terry: This is my first film I’ve worked on and I’ve only been working in cinematic storytelling since 2008-2009. My brother passed away in 2001. He left a series of DVDs for me and one of them was Shakespeare In Love and there’s a scene in there where Gwyneth Paltrow’s character says, ‘Tell our story, Will.’ My brother’s middle name was William. He was my example of love. He was there in other places where my other family members weren’t there. In a way, I get to feel like I complete that request that I thought came through that film at that moment to tell the story of love.

Justin: The only thing I’d like to add in conjunction with both Terry and Patrick’s examples. Leading in love is that the primary driver, but there are people that step into that role over the course of your life that make up the influence of the decisions and the trajectory of your life, at least through how I’ve learned to live life, through my spouse, through my kids, my family, mentors, sometimes strangers. It’s not just one person; it’s many people. What I really love about this film is that it exemplifies that. Yes, Patrick is at the helm trying to get me from St. John to Santiago, but there are many people that come in along the way that help and augment where we are both weak. It’s truly what we went through, too, so it’s not fabricated by any means. Very real and very raw. You get to see all the craziness that happens, all the good and bad and everything in between. That’s life how we live it, it’s not peaches and unicorns. It’s work. It’s being there for one another.

For more information or to purchase tickets, click here.

Previous Post

October 23, 2017

Kirk Cameron Explores Key For National Unity in ‘Revive Us 2’

Next Post

November 2, 2017 'On Wings of Eagles' Spotlights Final Mission of Eric Liddell

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Comics Movies Music Plays and Musicals Podcasts Television Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 September 2015 July 2015 March 2015 November 2014 September 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 May 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 February 2012 December 2011 November 2011 August 2011 July 2011 March 2011 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 April 2006 February 2006 December 2005 October 2005 September 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 February 2005

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

True or False: Cain killed his brother Abel because God rejected Cain's offering.

Select your answer to see how you score.

TRUE FALSE