Trailer drops for 'Sacred,' unique documentary on private experience of faith worldwide

Oscar-winning filmmaker Thomas Lennon directs film from WNET, set to debut December 10 on PBS

An image from Thomas Lennon's documentary "Sacred." Photo courtesy WNET/PBS

Oscar-winning director Thomas Lennon is taking on a subject of daunting breadth: religious faith as it is lived by people around the world. Fortunately, he didn't have to go it alone--40 filmmakers from across the globe joined to help tell the story.

Sacred, premiering Sunday, December 10 on PBS stations, shows how individuals from different faith traditions "turn to ritual and prayer to navigate the milestones and crises of private life," as WNET, producer of the film, puts it.

Stunning imagery brings viewers into contact with young people experiencing coming of age ceremonies in Myanmar, Israel and the San Carlos Apache Reservation in Arizona; a Buddhist monk on his "Kaihogyo"--a thousand day journey around Japan's Mt. Hiei;  Muslims on the Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca, and expressions of faith from Spain to Madagascar, India and Pakistan, to a prison in the U.S. and more.

"Today, not many people would dispute the importance of religion,” Lennon said in a statement. “But we in media usually look at it socially and politically. Here the goal is to plunge the viewer into a series of private experiences of faith and hopefully the intensity of that encounter shakes up our reactions, triggers something fresh.”

Watch the newly-released trailer below: