Film based on book by professor premieres at Longwood

March 2012

The national premiere of “WaterWalk,” a film that chronicles the epic 1,000-mile canoe trip undertaken by a Longwood English professor and his son, was held April 16 in Longwood’s Jarman Auditorium.

The independent film is based on the book Dr. Steven Faulkner wrote about the 62-day journey, which retraced part of the route taken in 1673 by Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet, the French explorers credited with discovering the Mississippi River. Faulkner and his then-16-year-old son, Justin, traveled from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to St Louis, facing such obstacles as overcoming a near drowning and getting lost in a swamp, among other adventures.

Although some details have been changed, the film is largely faithful to Faulkner’s book, WaterWalk: A Passage of Ghosts, which was published by RDR Books in December 2008, more than 10 years after Faulkner and his son completed their journey. In 1996, Faulkner was a graduate student at the University of Kansas. He undertook the trip out of a desire to retrace Marquette and Joliet’s route as well as to get closer to his son, whom he felt he’d been neglecting while focusing on his studies and working two jobs.