S01E06: Ben Wallbank - Filmmaker. Tititea / Mt. Aspiring Lookout. My Purpose in That Moment Was Done

The character traits that emerged so unexpectedly in the immediate aftermath of a car crash - the way he instinctively knew what to do, and how to do it - felt so deeply biologically anchored, they laid a career foundation that went unquestioned for the next fifteen years of Ben Wallbank’s life.

A foundation that served him incredibly well, but also one that felt like it might have been keeping him from the thing he was supposed to be doing.

He's only recently begun to see things differently, better appreciating the transferability of some of the skills from those earlier roles, as he was unwittingly learning important aspects of what would go on to serve him extremely well in his chosen craft as a filmmaker.

Ben grew up in Worthing on England’s south coast, with itchy feet and an interest in photography.

At 17, what he learnt about himself the night of the car accident led him to join the police, where he rose through counter-terrorism and organised crime to become one of the youngest Tactical Flight Officers in the UK, accumulating thousands of hours operating helicopter gimbal cameras at altitude.

In 2014, aged 29, he sold his camera and bought a one-way ticket to New Zealand, where he became a rescue helicopter crewman in Taranaki, spent a brief time with the NZ Police in Nelson, and in the background, was filming, photographing, and posting things online just for himself, until a film festival in the United States got in touch about one of his videos. His first response was incredulity, and seven years later, although he’s become an award-winning documentary director and expedition filmmaker, he still isn't taking anything for granted.

His film The Adventure of Racing, that he shot solo, covering an adventure racing team through the Fiordland backcountry, won Best Documentary at the NZ Mountain Film Festival 2024 and went on to screen on Sky TV and Amazon Prime. Onwards, his confronting documentary following physiotherapist Helene Barron’s battle with aggressive tongue cancer, was selected as a finalist at the 2025 Doc Edge Film Festival. His broadcast and commercial credits include Race to Survive: New Zealand on the USA Network, Apple TV, Red Bull TV, and FIS World Cup broadcast camera work.

We parked by the Tititea/Mt Aspiring lookout at Glendhu Bay - a spot Ben always slows down for when driving past, to acknowledge the mountain - and had a conversation about the long way round, and whether detours are ever really detours at all.

Видео S01E06: Ben Wallbank - Filmmaker. Tititea / Mt. Aspiring Lookout. My Purpose in That Moment Was Done канала The Unmaking