After Jonathon Barker left Shaftesbury Films, he and colleague Bob Kerr (co-founder and retired CEO of Imax) started SK Films, a shingle that produces and distributes giant-screen movies. Their latest endeavor, Journey to Mecca, is a story both Barker and Kerr felt particularly passionate about sharing. It tells the story of Ibn Battuta, perhaps the greatest and least-known explorer of all time who, in 1325, did a year-long pilgrimage from Tangier to Mecca.

‘This was an opportunity to tell a more human and cultural story as well as an opportunity to get involved in a message for the right time,’ explains Barker. ‘The idea is to provide some understanding of the Muslim world for the non-Muslim world.’

The epic movie enjoyed an epic premier, hosted by the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi. The largest outdoor screen ever assembled was erected, towering in at 70 feet by 100 feet. After the end of its three-day run, more than 80,000 people had viewed the film.

When asked about his favorite sequence in Mecca, Barker muses that it was actually a moment he was unable to experience in person. ‘It was the filming of three million pilgrims in Mecca,’ he says. ‘No foreigners were allowed to enter the city, so I couldn’t see it myself, but it was one of the most amazing things I have been able to capture on film.’

Barker’s next project, Flight of the Butterflies, following the migration of monarch butterflies from Canada to Mexico, will also be a bit of a departure from the traditional storytelling format found in most IMAX films.

Says Barker: ‘It is a story that interweaves natural history with scientific mystery, not only tracking the flight of the butterflies themselves but also the 30-year-long search for where exactly it is that they go.’

Journey to Mecca is now playing at the Ontario Science Centre in Toronto.