The Golden Valley is in Bamiyan, Afghanistan, a less visible part of the country now closed to the world due to its unstable political situation.

Director Ben Sturgulewski said Bamiyan was a legend in the ski world, so he went to see for himself. He was impressed by the beautiful mountains, the impressive powder and the community that had created its own ski culture.

“They want to make their own skis out of wood and milk jug bindings and just climb the mountains behind their houses,” he said on KPCW’s “Local News Hour.” “And at the end of winter, they have an amazing ski race where all the people from all over the valley come together and have a big celebration ski race where they compete to become the champion of that winter.”

Katie Stjernholm said the film started out as a 40-minute short focusing on ski culture and competition. After production finished, the story became much deeper and longer as Afghanistan collapsed into the hands of the Taliban.

She said they put the film on the shelf as they began helping the skiers find a way to leave the country.

“And we managed to get almost 300 Afghans out of Afghanistan during that time,” she said. “And then we realized that the film we had made, which I always call the ‘Cool Runnings’ of Afghan skiing, needed some work to really reconfigure it, because we followed the incredible, heartbreaking, resilient stories of all skiers. they rebuilt their lives, whether in Afghanistan or a new country, as our main ski coach and others were displaced as refugees.

“Champions of Golden Valley” has been on the film festival circuit since June and has won several awards. Stjernholm hopes for worldwide distribution soon.

“We’re at the point where we realize this is a story that really resonates with audiences,” she said. “When it comes to distribution, the landscape is difficult for independent documentarians. But after our tour of film festivals, we hope it will end up on a streaming platform and we continue to push the film up the mountain to get it released and run a big impact campaign.

“Champions of the Golden Valley” will be screened Thursday, November 14 at 7 p.m. at the Jim Santry Auditorium as part of Park City Film’s Raising Voices series.

Some of the film’s creators will be present for a discussion after the screening.

Tickets are $10 for adults and free for students and can be purchased here.