BBFF2025 Meet the Filmmaker: Ben Sturgulewski
Champions of the Golden Valley
Ben ‘Sturge’ Sturgulewski grew up on a remote island in Alaska’s Aleutian Chain, sparking a lifelong passion for wild places and the people who inhabit them. His award-winning short films have screened globally, earning acclaim for cinematography, editing, and storytelling. He’s worked with Patagonia, YETI, Arcteryx, Red Bull, and others, and his ski film VALHALLA was named "The Greatest Ski Film of All Time" by Outside Magazine. Champions of the Golden Valley is his first feature documentary.
CWhat is your film about, and what inspired you to make it?
I started out with a career making outdoor adventure films, many about skiing. This took me all over the world filming in remote mountain ranges. In 2019, I finally had a chance to go to Afghanistan. I'd heard incredible things about the mountains there, but when we finally arrived there we found that there was so much more to the wonder and beauty of the place and the culture. Our story unfolded in ways that we couldn't have imagined, and it ended up evolving into much more than a ski film... eventually, becoming a feature documentary.
Documentaries can amplify underrepresented voices and overlooked stories. What makes the subject of your film significant to you, and why did you feel it was important to share it with the BBFF audience?
In a time of deep political division, we think that now more than ever we need to see the human stories behind the headlines. If we can reorient the conversation to our shared humanity, we think there is a chance that greater conversations can follow. In this film we purposefully tried to avoid politics and just show how one community and one family were deeply impacted by events beyond their control. Through doing so, we hope viewers can see themselves mirrored in this story, and gain a greater empathy for their neighbors in this world.
Have you always wanted to be a filmmaker, and what path brought you here?
I've always been interested in narrative film, since sneaking into movie theaters as a kid! I'd make short films for fun in high school and college. Then as part of my senior year project in college, we tried to put together a ski film. It was successful, caught on, and then next thing we knew, we seemed to be doing it for a career!
Documentaries have the power to inform, educate, and inspire change. Has your previous work sparked any real-world impact or responses, and do you hope for a similar outcome with this film?
This is our first impact-oriented documentary, and we have partnered with a number of organizations in order to further our impact goals. We are working with the IRC, Women for Afghan Women, the Central Asia Institute, and others in order to draw attention to and support for the people of Afghanistan, and those from all nations who have been displaced from their homes. We are also working to directly support the community portrayed in the film by raising resources for the skiing organization there.
We hope that this film can inspire people to think differently about Afghanistan and the refugee experience, and to have radical curiousity about both their pasts and their future.
What message or emotions do you hope your film conveys to the audience?
In a word, hope. We hope the film inspires people to recognize the strength and resilience of the Afghan people, and have hope for their future, and for our treatment of and hospitality towards people who have been displaced from their homes.