Grand Junction High School senior Cameron Kirkegaard has completed his third documentary throughout his high school career.
Kirkegaard is debuting a documentary about winter sport biathletes and their experiences of sexual assault called “Line of Fire.” He invited multiple retired Olympians from the past decades of racing to talk about their experiences during their time.
According to Kirkegaard, the Olympians featured in the documentary are Joanne Reid, Joan Wilder, Anna French, and Drew Hudon. Reid was the first person to come forward with her story of abuse while participating in the biathlon, and Wilder followed, with her experiences being from decades prior.
“I’ve made a couple of documentaries now, and what stood out to me is how this subject is not widely known and generally kept to a smaller community. I came up with the idea after I had digested the first AP news article about Joanne [Reid] and her experiences. I thought that the beauty of the sport set alongside the darkness some athletes experience would allow for a really beautiful and meaningful film,” said Kirkegaard.
French helped teach at the Olympics clinic and is a professional biathlete. Hudon organized the festival, which the film is based on. He is very close to Reid and Wilder and volunteered his time to create an all-women’s biathlon festival. Reid and French are currently training for the World Cup and IBU trials in Utah.
According to Kirkegaard, he wanted to document the sexual abuse of biathletes because it’s not a well-known sport. Kirkegaard’s goal is to raise awareness of the subject and help the biathletes.
“Cameron’s film was also selected for the 2025 Pikes Peak docuFEST in Colorado Springs on October 4. Achievements like this show what can happen when students are given the chance to connect what they’re learning in school to real-world experiences,” said Mesa County Valley School District 51 Superintendent Dr. Brian Hill in an email sent to parents on Oct. 3. “This is a core priority of our D51 Strategic Plan: helping students discover their strengths, pursue their interests, and build pathways that lead them beyond graduation,” he said.
Biathlon is a winter sport that combines cross-country skiing and rifle marksmanship. Athletes ski a course and then stop at the shooting range to shoot at targets, with penalties incurred for missed shots, such as time added or penalty loops skied.
This documentary serves as a fundraising effort for a charity called The Army of Survivors. It supports women who have experienced similar situations to the biathletes. Everyone who contributed to the documentary will be on a panel together at the end of the documentary showing at the Avalon.
Kirkegaard said the budget to make the documentary was $1,500, funded from the Office of Film, Television, and Media. The “Line of Fire” documentary will be released at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 8, at Avalon Theater, located at 645 Main St. in Grand Junction.
Last school year, Kirkegaard showed a documentary called “Our Time,” released on Nov. 1, 2024, in the new GJHS auditorium. “Our Time” was made to address the difficulties that women faced over the past 60 years in the eyes of GJHS alumni.
To find out more about the documentary “Line of Fire,” the trailer is available on YouTube.
