Trail Mix follows a 2,000-mile journey from Georgia to Maine, uncovering the personal struggles and healing of hikers seeking solace, purpose, and transformation. Directed by Glenn Sweitzer, the film reveals how nature becomes a powerful path back to wholeness.

http://trailmix.film/

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Review by Victoria Angelique:

The documentary, TRAIL MIX, is a beautiful celebration of life and nature. It is a journey of a filmmaker on the Appalachian Trail as he meets other hikers to find out their stories while reconnecting with his own soul. 

The film starts with a question, wondering why someone would hike for months on a trail, leading the filmmaker to go on the journey himself through one of the longest trails. The Appalachian Trail goes through 14 states on the east coast of the United States, which makes it a perfect place to meet strangers from all over the world as people from all walks of life will spend months on this hike. 

The main theme for each of them, the trail isn’t just about the gorgeous nature that surrounds the paths, it’s about the people that become family on the long journey. It’s an opportunity to teach individuals about themselves and other people as they reconnect to nature, where it’s emphasized several times that people belong. 

The filmmaker interviews psychologists, they also agree that humans belong in nature and that we have taken ourselves out of it. They make it clear that by removing ourselves from the earth, our health suffers and that reconnecting with it can help to restore the balance in our bodies. This makes the people that the filmmaker encounter seem uplifting, as they all seem happy and at peace rather than tense and angry like those we encounter in large cities. 

Instead of just talking to those on the trail, we are also given a brief history of the Appalachian Trail. It makes the stories more impactful because the roots go back to 1921, showing that the mission has stayed the same since the trail’s inception. 

This documentary will make people want to reconnect with nature. It is an uplifting journey that might make people want to add hiking the Appalachian Trail to their bucket list.