Ben Knight

Former Telluride local Ben Knight was first inspired to make documentaries as a young man working behind the projector at Mountainfilm, and he's gone on to become one of the festival's most celebrated filmmakers, loved for his gorgeously precise cinematography and his irreverent sense of humor. His films include the viral hit Denali (Mountainfilm 2015), the feature DamNation (Mountainfilm 2014), produced in conjunction with Patagonia; as well as classics like Running Down the Man (Mountainfilm 2013) and Red Gold (Mountainfilm in 2008). Knight, along with his producing partner Travis Rummel, runs Felt Soul Media. Rummel and Knight also made the films Senior: 82 Winters in Telluride, Kamchatka Steelhead Project (both Mountainfilm 2016), Katie (Mountainfilm 2018) and Life of Pie (Mountainfilm 2019) and Learning to Drown (Mountainfilm 2022). Knight lives in a schoolhouse near Howard, Colorado, with his wife, daughter, chickens and two cats.