Written, Directed & PRODUCED by Jude Kriwald
EDITED by Christian Burnett
Alone Across Gola is an award-winning adventure documentary by debut filmmaker Jude Kriwald. This gripping short film follows Jude’s extraordinary solo journey through Liberia's dense Gola rainforest - a landscape uncharted by roads or paths, where every step meant battling through thick undergrowth with nothing more than a bicycle and a tent.
His clothes drenched with sweat, Jude carried his 53kg bike over fallen trees, navigated ravines with collapsed bridges, and faced life-threatening moments. It’s an adventure that pushes the limits of endurance, self-reliance and the human spirit, and often has Jude asking “is this route even possible”, all whilst filming the endeavour totally unsupported.
The film goes beyond clichés of gnarly adventure to offer a reflection on the struggles of pursuing childhood dreams that often get sidelined by the pressures of modern life. Through moments of profound introspection, Jude’s journey asks: What happens when we step off the beaten track of our careers and everyday routines to follow the dreams we thought we’d left behind?
about the film
ALONE ACROSS GOLA won Best Micro-Budget Short at our BIFA qualifying film festival this past summer 2025. Other festival awards highlights include winning Best Short Documentary at the London Global Film Awards and Best Documentary at Phoenix Rising Film Festival and Feel the Reel Film Festival. It was nominated for Best Documentary at Cambridge Short Film Festival and selected for the Royal Geographical Society Preview - Explore Symposium.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKER
Jude Kriwald is a first-time filmmaker from Bristol, UK. An experienced explorer, he has recently turned his hand to creating his first short film, a documentary edited by award-winning editor Christian Burnett.
Jude was recently named as Emerging Leader of the Year by the British Exploring Society, in recognition of his voluntary work as Basecamp Manager on their summer expedition. The expedition saw Jude and 11 other leaders guide 30 teenagers and young adults from difficult backgrounds on a life-changing and confidence-building two-week expedition in the Scottish Highlands.
In 2012, aged just 19, Jude cycled from England to India through regions such as Afghanistan and Tibet, whilst enduring temperatures as low as -31c and navigating malaria, typhoid, and being held up at gunpoint.
In 2023, Jude has opened his adventures up to the world. He is the founder of AdventureMentor.org, a service which offers free mentoring for people typically under-represented in the world of adventure. Through Adventure Mentor, Jude offers practical support as well as confidence and mindset mentoring to ensure that lack of knowledge, confidence or privilege should never be a reason someone misses out on the life-changing benefits of adventure.
READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH jude
Hi Jude!
Welcome to our Short of the Week series.
Alone Across Gola isn’t only your debut film, but it was also an Award Winner at our festival this past summer. Impressive debut! Can you tell our audiences a bit about yourself and your background?
I'm an adventurer interested in using challenging trips to explore what drives us, connects us and, sometimes, troubles us. My real passion lies in authentic adventures and I share these through film, public speaking and writing. Alone Across Gola is my first film and has exceeded all my expectations in terms of how much I've enjoyed it and how it's been received!
Let's talk about the genesis of Alone Across Gola.
This is a very personal documentary project. It's more about you documenting your ambitious journey vs scratching a filmmaking desire.
I assume the idea for the trip came before the idea to film it. Can you tell us about how and why you decided to take this journey, and when you decided filming would be a part of it?
Great question! I decided to make the journey through West Africa after ignoring, for too long, a burning desire to get back out in the wild. West Africa seemed like the perfect blend of fascinating cultures, untamed wilderness, and the right amount of large animals to make things exciting. I initially filmed the trip for my own YouTube series that I was editing and producing on the go, from West African hotel rooms. In the end, I got fed up with using my travel time for post production so continued filming and resolved to edit upon returning home.
It was only after having the wild, unexpected and immensely challenging experience on the jungle, the key vehicle of the film, that I decided to create a proper short film.
We usually ask filmmakers what the main obstacles were experienced when making their films, however, in your case the entire journey is one big obstacle that you had to overcome. Maybe you can chat about how documenting this trip added to the challenges?
That was a pretty unique challenge! I was truly alone in the jungle - no crew or fixers of any sort. So after 12 hours of slogging my bike across jungle terrain each day, often progressing only 7km every 24 hours, I'd have to sit up in my sauna of a tent and spend an hour copying files from my SD cards, onto my laptop and then onto my hard drive at night. That hard drive was the only "copy" I had of any of those files, so I always feared losing it.
Then there's of course the challenge of setting up tripods before any tough section of the jungle - essential if I wanted to capture the right footage to share the story back home. There were times when the going was just too tough and I didn't film - safety had to come first!
Let's chat about the editing process. Your film has a longer run time for a short, yet it's captivating every minute without a second of run time wasted. How much footage did you walk away with and what stuff ended up on the cutting room floor?
The best decision I ever made was to work with seasoned editor, Christian Burnett. He not only edited the film but mentored me through the whole post-production stage. I ended up with about 100 clips each day to choose from. There are still whole stories and fascinating sections that have never been seen as we were really conscious to keep the flow tight. We even discussed making it a feature film at the start, there was that much footage. On the other hand, once we had a tight cut, one of my favourite parts was going through and working with Christian to add short bits of space for the audience to breathe - it's such a high octane and emotive film that it felt important to allow people to catch their breath and reflect.
Tell us about the journey of getting your film to audiences and some of the festival circuit highlights and online release.
What advice or hacks would you give to other short documentary filmmakers?
The festival circuit was such a journey for me! It started with six straight "no"s but, by the end of its run a year later, I was getting almost all "yes"s, even from the big ones. That just showed to me that, rightly or wrongly, many festivals do look at how your film has performed at other festivals, and I had to build up organically. I also changed my film poster after that first run of rejections, working with a pro to make something more reflective of the film itself, which I think made a huge difference.
It's been such a momentous joy sharing it with audiences, and there are too many highlights to properly choose from. Ones that stand out are picking up the Audience Award at the very first festival I attended (English Riviera) - that meant a lot as all the "judges" were sat in the room with me! To finish, Alone Across Gola ended its festival run by showing at the Grand Rex in Paris, the largest cinema hall in Europe - where it also picked up an award - that was a night I'll never forget! As for its YouTube release, that's just been crazy, especially in terms of the viewing numbers - it's so moving to see people from around the world, that I'd never otherwise reach, resonate with the message and share that back to me.
My best tip would be to make sure you're applying to at least some festivals that are very specific for your niche (in my case mountain film festivals). That's where at least 50% of your selections are likely to come from, plus you'll meet people directly involved in your industry or interests. And don't be too perturbed if you get a load of "no"s at the start!
What's next for you, in terms of filmmaking?
Honestly, I'm not too sure. I've grown increasingly aware of how filming myself on adventures can detract from having an authentic adventure. I'm very interested in exploring more analogue adventures (e.g. no GPS or phone, navigating with a compass and the stars), so that would either require someone else to film or, alternatively, maybe I'll write about these explorations rather than make a film, we'll have to wait and see!
Any film recommendations that we should add to our watchlist?
Do all you can to see the short film Sand Dancers. I saw it recently at Kendal Mountain Film Festival - it left me inspired, deeply moved and with tears rolling down my cheeks.
