В Южной Дакоте показали документальный фильм о 4000-мильном путешествии в поисках радости

‘Joy in the Heartland’ gives view into 4,000-mile journey of faith SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) - Lonnette Kelley set out across South Dakota in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, on a 4,000-mile road trip she called the Trail of Hearts, visiting 51 communities and documenting what she found along the way. Kelley, a nurse for decades, wrote about the experience in her book, Joy in the Heartland: Life-changing Road Trips through God’s Healing Fields of South Dakota. MORE: New book could help find hidden treasures near Sioux Falls With the help of a team, that book has since become a documentary. Kelley has screened the documentary twice this week before live audiences at an assisted living facility. She said the viewers’ response not only calmed her nerves as a first-time filmmaker but also encouraged her to believe they were grasping the same message. “They were just glued to my program, and I thought perhaps they’ll be bored. Perhaps this won’t match the gentlemen, or it won’t match the ladies. Everyone was totally glued to my movie,” Kelley said. She said people became emotional watching the film, and that it started conversations that wouldn’t stop afterwards. “It was very quiet. You could tell that they were feeling the emotions, and they were wiping the tears away,” Kelley said. Kelley said the book and documentary are designed to work together, allowing audiences to both read about and see her journey through South Dakota. MORE: ‘Joy in the Heartland’ author meets couple who found hidden hearts tied to book It also serves as a time capsule, capturing images and video of places in South Dakota as they are now. “So many things that I snapped in my book already with photographs are gone. In these short four or five years, numerous vintage items are gone. Nothing lasts forever. And eventually, this book will be so old that probably many of these things will be gone also,” Kelley said. Kelley said a woman came up to her following one of the showings and said the film reminded her of her mother’s experience with Alzheimer’s, and how her family would help her remember things from the past. “She said, ‘You know, my family and I would take Mom out on a country drive. She had Alzheimer’s, and we had trouble breaking through the wall and communicating. But when we got into her home turf, her area, the wall just came down, and she was talking, and happy and smiling.’ She said, ‘I believe that your story, your movie, belongs in many nursing homes and [assisted living facilities].’” “My hope, too, is to reach out to those who probably haven’t been on a country road or towards their home lately. In the comfort of their living room, in a comfortable chair, they can go back in time, and they can see the places that they miss and where they’ve been,” Kelley said. Kelley said she never imagined she would become an author, let alone a filmmaker. She said the central theme of her work is that joy is a choice available to anyone. “The idea is that joy is out there. It’s everywhere. It’s just our choice. We need to stop wherever we are, and search around and look around. Because joy is there,” Kelley said. She described joy as something deeper than surface-level happiness. “It’s not an outward happiness. Joy is that deep, deep feeling in your heart that sparks the rest of your love and your joy within your body,” Kelley said. Joy in the Heartland: Life-changing Road Trips through God’s Healing Fields of South Dakota is now available to rent online, and the book of the same name is available to purchase on Amazon and locally at Crossroads in Sioux Falls. Copyright 2026 Dakota News Now. All rights reserved.