When Michael Greenberg met with Assistant Professor Sam Pack a few weeks after he arrived at Kenyon, he thought they'd have a brief chat about film and cultural anthropology, two topics that interested the transfer student from Wake Forest. By the time they finished, Greenberg had signed on to visit Honduras with Pack and help film a local Easter ceremony.

"It was a huge surprise," said Greenberg, a resident of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, who is now a senior. "It was one of my first experiences at Kenyon, and I discovered this was a place where students have a lot of opportunities. I couldn't pass it up."

The Easter ceremony takes place in the small towns of Pueblo Nuevo and Petoa. It lasts several days, incorporating indigenous beliefs with Catholicism. The festival is characterized by numerous processions, elaborate street theater, and, at times, a party atmosphere. Culminating with Mass on Easter Sunday, it's a prime example of syncretism, or the blending of distinct religious traditions—one of Pack's research areas.

Greenberg had previously created a few scripted short films, but he'd never captured documentary footage, let alone a chaotic event in another country.

"In the beginning I didn't know what to catch, because there was so much interesting stuff going on," said Greenberg, who also helped create a campus film group called Kenyon Film Makers. "I learned to pick one thing and focus on it. I got a lot more patient. It's amazing how much you learn when you're thrown into a situation like that."