We get asked alot about why we chose the word “Pilgrim” as a company name.

“Is it a religious organisation?”

Whenever such a question is asked, Eng Tiong will inevitably look at me. Well, I picked the name.

The word “pilgrim” as defined by my trusty Oxford MiniDictionary is:

n. person how travels to a sacred place as an act of religious devotion.

For us, our “religion” is making moving pictures. That is something that we devote our lives to perfecting. So if you think about it, we’re not that different from a pilgrim pilgrim. We seek fulfilment, peace, love, joy in making screen content. And we need to have the same level of commitment, devotion, passion and perseverence to achieve our goal.

That answers the “why” portion. The “how” didn’t come from the dictionary for sure! It’s inspired by Enya’s song ”Pilgrim”.

The verses that did it for me:

“Each heart is a pilgrim,
each one wants to know
the reason why the winds die
and where the stories go.
Pilgrim, in your journey
you may travel far,
for pilgrim it’s a long way
to find out who you are…”

When we decided to set up our business in 2002, “Pilgrim” is a natural choice for our company name. It’s been a great ride since and I’ve no doubt that it’ll continue to be. Of course we’ve had really ”down” days too but truly, I’ve never been happier.