Champions of the Golden Valley

Friday, December 5, 2025, 7 - 9pm

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Image of skiers with mountain behind

The Cooper Union’s Gardiner Foundation Great Hall Forum presents a special screening of the Oscar-contending documentary Champions of the Golden Valley. The film tells the remarkable true story of Alishah Farhang, a driven Afghan Olympic hopeful whose unfulfilled dream sparks a vibrant homegrown ski culture, bringing joy and hope to a new generation. Bringing together young athletes from villages across Afghanistan and utilizing makeshift wooden skis and secondhand gear, Farhang organizes a ski race like no other. The documentary showcases the power of sport to strengthen communities – and how resilience, community and sheer determination can create extraordinary change. One of the year’s most decorated documentaries, the film has garnered 38 Jury Prizes and Audience Awards, including 17 Grand Prizes since its Tribeca premiere. 

Skier in white sunglassesThe event will be hosted by Brian Cox and Nicole Ansari, with a special appearance by Executive Producer and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate 
Malala Yousafzai. Following the screening, Executive Producer and Tony- and Emmy-nominated actor Arian Moayed will facilitate a discussion with Executive Producer Malala Yousafzai, Director Ben Sturgulewski, and Producers Katie Stjernholm and Baktash Ahadi.

Registration on EventBrite is required. However, an EventBrite ticket does not guarantee entry as this is a first-come-first-served free event. 

 

 

Watch the trailer of what Variety calls “the ultimate underdog story” here.

Located in The Great Hall, in the Foundation Building, 7 East 7th Street, between Third and Fourth Avenues

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  • Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.

  • “My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”

  • From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.

  • Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.