Many of the individual handcart companies have been documented by various films, books and even stage plays. Documentary filmmaker Lee Groberg helped in the creation of the Ericksens' film, and on one occasion told Ericksen it "just came together like it was planned from the beginning." Shots he had taken for other screenplays that were not used, "fit perfectly" in "Walking in Obedience: the Ole Madsen story."

The finished product premiered at the Bountiful Handcart Days on Friday and many copies of the film on DVD and other CDs produced in part by Ericksen were handed out to family and members of the community, as they became emotionally tied to the film, Ericksen said.

"There's so much metaphor in it for the average man, or woman — the person who gets up every morning and goes out to support their family, the real heroes who make daily sacrifices for their kids," Ericksen said. "This film was made so that we could show those points along the way, those metaphors."

He hopes that ordinary people realize that the lives they are living today will someday become someone else's pioneer stories, and people then will "try to know everything about you," Ericksen said. "There are people who will grow up and will hand on every word you say and try to find out who you are and why you did things and what you sacrificed or why you joined a certain church or how you got to America or whatever comes up now through history and I think that's the real message."

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E-mail: wleonard@desnews.com