Travel Documentary Film

A young, independent woman (Barbara Doux) decides to leave everything behind to return to her homeland. She travels in her converted van to draw a geographic heart as a symbol of reconciliation with her roots after many years of feeling alienated from her French culture and family.

She sets out to interview strangers through France to find fragments of herself in every new meeting. All the while, she’d dive into compelling conversations about what it means to live life to the fullest, accepting the inevitability of death, finding love, letting go of unhealthy relationships, and learning how to forgive and accept others, and especially yourself.

Like famous French author Jules Verne, she sets off on an 80-day adventure which takes her to undiscovered places—open seas, thriving cities, late-night raves, the quiet wilderness, kayaking down lazy rivers, sleeping in tents, yurts, houses, and her camper van.

This film began as a personal challenge I set for myself, first as an artist swapping my photo camera for a video camera and second as a human being trying to understand others and myself.

As a photographer, my mentors always told me to shoot in my own backyard. I put my life on hold to live in a van for two years and return to my ancestral homeland. I wanted to understand where I came from and rediscover the people I had once escaped.

The journey was beyond my expectations. There was a flow to everything, from initial filming through post-production… until my cancer diagnosis.

I had to put this project on hold to get my health back. After making peace with my life—and the long break needed to create this film from beginning to end—I understand that the strength of this story has only gotten stronger with time. Self-love and self-acceptance are the real journey we are all taking, and this documentary is a testament to our capacity to feel with our whole hearts.

Barbara accepted Jaymee’s invitation to be a guest on this show solely on the strength of her belief that Jaymee could be someone to help find her voice and bring about healing. This is the first time she has shared her story publicly, which is jam packed with story after story of how to overcome adversity, create a dream life of creativity with no connections or easy ways in, and how to take calculated risks in business and in travel and stay alive.

Barbara Doux is a French filmmaker who became a Wing Chun martial artist solely to become a better photographer, bungee jumped as a therapy to conquer anxiety, took two yoga teacher training’s in India to overcome depression, and manifested a dream gig as an assistant photographing 3 continents in 30 days. Barbara has been searching her entire life to find her voice, she suspects developed into a recent bout with stage 4 throat (thyroid) cancer, which she was ultimately successful in treating.