“When the student is ready, the teacher appears.”
– Tao Te Ching
The concept of religion never quite seemed like a casual topic of conversation, but it has grown to be quite the sticky wicket. It often seems that around the same time that having a global understanding of how the world works and how the people living within it function in all their similarities and complex differences, there arose a notion that saying “Merry Christmas” during the winter holidays around the U.S. had become outlawed (or some other hyperbolic descriptor). It’s as if the acknowledgement that not all individuals who celebrate holidays in the last month(s) of the year somehow puts down an entire faith instead of being respective to those who, perhaps, don’t elevate the parable of baby Jesus. The only way to close the gap that fear creates is through education and John Camardella strives to do exactly this in his World Religion course at Prospect High School in Mount Prospect, Illinois. A former student of Camardella’s in this exact course, filmmaker Allison Walsh (Parallel Lines) decided to document Camardella’s work with the 2019-2000 school year class, talking with the students inside the class and outside, seeing how the awareness of other faiths and the ways their faiths are explored generate a growth in perspective. The completed documentary, All of the Above, having its world premiere at Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2026, is a surprisingly perceptive look at what happens when the concept of religion is separated from absolutes and is given space for exploration and understanding.
R: John Camardella in documentary ALL OF THE ABOVE. Photo courtesy of Kartemquin Films.
Walsh’s All of the Above is a tale of two perspectives: that of Camardella and those of the students. In both cases, Walsh offers a mixture of captured footage and talking head interviews with one often leading into the other. The only time that we really hear from Walsh at all is near the beginning of the film when they’re introduced by Camardella to his class and, from off-camera, Walsh tells the class how they are a former student in 2012 and decided to make this project based on their experience with it. It’s the only time we really hear from them directly, but it absolutely sets the tone in terms of the kind of perspective that’s driving the film. Viewing All of the Above through the lens of a former student looking to share their experience with others put the students as the cypher for us, the audience, and Camardella as our guide. Admittedly, the amount one gets out of the film will depend on their own perspective, their known and unknown held biases, and, of course, a willingness to look beyond one’s tightly-clutched belief systems.
The driving piece of All of the Above is the inclusion of Camardella because it’s his voice, his perspective, that initiates the discussions that occur throughout. As such, Walsh makes sure to spend a little time with Camardella through the introduction of his mother, the story of his parents (a former nun and former priest), and the worldview that he was raised with through the prism of faith. Especially as the discussions in the other tract result in parents with their own questions about the course, following Camardella means getting a glimpse at his adult lecture series that encourages the parents of students to come learn (outside of the school period) what their children are discussing by having one of their own. Focusing on Camardella seems like the obvious choice as the adult in the classroom, but his story is merely the framework upon which everything else exists making it important to understand, but less so to spend the most time on. Wisely, Walsh weaves in and out of Camardella’s tract, using either the classroom as the place to start a thought, an idea, or perspective that’s then carried by the subjects/the students.
A scene from documentary ALL OF THE ABOVE. Photo courtesy of Kartemquin Films.
The bulk, then, is spent with a small group of Prospect High School students taking the class. Sometimes this means watching portions of classroom discussion, sometimes it’s out-of-class (on-campus and off) conversation about the topic. The former typically involves the talking head interviews or moments at lunch/out of class, while the latter is captured most often within the students’ own homes or places of worship. The power of the latter is seeing how each of the subjects — some Christian, a Hindu, a Jew, and a Muslim among them — engage in conversation with their families about the topic currently being discussed (either their own religion or another) and seeing how their respective units react and respond to what these students are learning. It’s a little unsurprising when one student comments to their parents about being unaware of a story from their faith (acknowledging its misogyny in the process) and then being told it’s a story they loved in their younger years at bedtime, but have forgotten it. It’s a moment that raises questions about the parts of our faith, our culture, that we may not remember due to growing up in a secular environment, while also highlighting that our youth tend not to know as much as they think they do. The reaction to the space between what they know and what they think they know being where growth can occur with the right support system. In another sequence, one of the subjects (Christian) spends Hanukkah with their best friend (Jewish), the differences in their respective holidays brought out as the best friend had come to attend a Christmas celebration that the subject performed at, resulting in a dinner-time conversation about the overlap. Several of the subjects (and even Camardella separately in the adult class) identify the predominantly Christian community around Prospect High School and, through the course of the documentary, we see them begin to wonder about how the world actually functions and their place in it as global citizens.
A point of clarification: If you’re unaware, I am Jewish. I grew up in a small town that had two temples: one Reform and one Conservative. I was taken to services most Fridays and attended Sunday school. I went to a private school from kindergarten through my Junior year and, for the entirety of my time there, we had Christmas Break, not a “winter break”, before which one of the principals (we had one per lower education building) would dress as Santa, and the majority of our holidays were all based on the Christian calendar. The number of times I had to sing in the Christmas pageant on or around my birthday was enough for me to eventually lie and say it was against my religion to participate. (Great songs, many of which I still remember, but the timing sucked and I wanted to celebrate my birthday.) While Jewish kids did go to the school, I was the only one in my class and the only one in my core group of friends. They didn’t attend my services, I didn’t attend theirs, but the leaders of my Sunday school thought it was important that, during the final year I attended, that we spend time visiting other religious services. I’ll never forget the Christian Orthodox service in the way the procession with the thurible reminded me of ours with the Torah (minus the incense) or the joy of the Hindu festival Holi as we splattered each other with color reminding me of Purim (minus the aforementioned splattering of color). By spending even a few hours with a different faith than my own, I was able to start to draw connections and correlations between their faith and my own. We’re only at odds when we want to focus on what separates us versus embracing the joy that comes from our differences and the similarities within.
A scene from documentary ALL OF THE ABOVE. Photo courtesy of SBIFF.
While there are times when some of the conversations don’t feel as natural as one might expect for a documentary (a subject who knows they’re being watched does change behavior, but the looks from observers straight down the barrel of the camera lens doesn’t help the naturalness), the end result of them comes across wonderfully: it’s ok to have faith, it’s fantastic even, but to presume that *your* faith is the *true* faith comes from a place of ignorance that will only shrink your life, not expand it. It certainly helps that Camardella is earnest in his desire to explore faith not as better/worse but in an academic way that offers space for contemplation to arise that other, more non-secular circumstances don’t allow. Often, in the silence of our questions does the answer reveal itself, creating within us the spark to explore beyond our established mental perimeters. As Walsh was clearly inspired, so, hopefully, will others achieve a similar state of encouragement to move beyond the walls of pre-established safety and step out into the world.
Screening during Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2026.
For more information, head to the official All of the Above website.
Final Score: 4 out of 5.
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Categories: In Theaters, Reviews
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