A 40-year-old married mother of two struggles with an identity crisis after leaving a nearly 20-year career as a banking executive. Disillusioned by the emptiness she feels from her self-imposed climb up the corporate ladder, Berni embarks on a soul-searching mission to discover her life’s purpose. After becoming frustrated with an unproductive job search, she is inspired to pursue her childhood dream of filmmaking.
While researching a spiritual-based documentary subject, Berni is invited by a transformational speaker to attend the Parliament of Spirituality Conference in Hyderabad, India to cover the event and join the speakers for a tour through the rich landscape and sacred sites of a magical land. With no formal training in filmmaking, Berni flies in the face of convention to answer what she believes to be her calling. She hires crewmembers she’s never met and leaves her family over the Christmas holiday, determined to film a documentary in a country she only knows from books and movies.
Despite a mere five weeks to plan for production and travel, Berni’s decision to journey across the world seems destined for success as the pieces begin to happily fall into place. She’s inspired by the challenge of helping others going through difficult transitions, and feels certain she’s on the right track with this documentary challenge.
Unfortunately, after arriving in India, Berni quickly finds that expectations for the conference were not as she was led to believe and that the tour following the conference has been suddenly cancelled. Not knowing when or where to meet her film crew, and with the production plan in jeopardy, Berni fears there is no documentary to film after all. Having risked time and money with this leap of faith, Berni is on the verge of a meltdown. What was she thinking? How could she have been so naïve?
The conference takes place and, despite her trepidation, Berni vows to move forward. Interestingly, as the intimate filmmaking group begins their own self-led tour of India, the camera’s focus shifts from documenting the spiritual leaders to following Berni’s own surprising journey of transformation; the subject of interest becomes the filmmaker herself. A pivotal moment occurs when Berni encounters one of her greatest phobias: a cobra. During an emotional breakdown, her truest fear is exposed when she expresses what most would never admit. In this poignant turning point, the conference speakers focus their attention on Berni to help her navigate a journey that’s uniquely her own.
