‘Really, the star of the film is the Blue Mountains,’ says 20-year-old William Corlett. We’re talking about his feature-length documentary, charting his epic 500-kilometre trail run through those New South Wales’ mountains – a feat he achieved in just seven days
Having already won Best Documentary at the Next Level International Film Festival in Sydney, King of the Mountains has also been nominated for awards at six international film festivals, including Italy’s oldest sports film festival, Paladino.
The beating heart of the film is Corlett, a larrikin-protagonist who speaks in a characteristically Aussie dialect with all its familiar colloquialisms (and, of course, a copious amount of swearing).
Whether he’s recalling a night spent ‘spinning mad yarns around the campfire’, or turning to his film crew to offer a classic ‘how good’s that?’ while taking in a cliff-side view of the Three Sisters, Corlett’s narration throughout King of the Mountains captures a youthful voice emblematic of Australia’s unique (and often amusing) vernacular that no doubt fascinates a global audience.
Backed by an assembly of mates from high school who set up Corlett’s tent each night, tend to his running wounds and keep him going with constant offerings of strawberry-flavoured milk, King of the Mountains also offers an authentic glimpse into a humble, rural community.
A year after undertaking his titular journey that raised over $22k for the charity Lifeline Australia, Corlett continues to reflect on the generosity of his inner-circle, even down to their participation in the filming process.
‘All of the supporting cast members involved only begrudgingly [agreed to be] a part of this documentary,’ he explains. ‘You’re seeing a slice of Australians quite unique to the mountains who wouldn’t of their own volition put themselves in front of the camera.’
Authenticity and veracity are defining qualities of the documentary, which blends amateur iPhone and GoPro footage with professional cinematography to ensure every moment of Will’s run is documented.
‘A lot of things in the film were filmed by myself out in the bush because I was going so remote [that] we couldn’t get anybody out there with me.’
Indeed, what sets Corlett’s route apart from those of predecessors and peers such as William Goodge and Nedd Brockmann are its off-trail segments.
‘The kind of achievement of running from Perth to Sydney is a magnitude that obviously stands on its own two feet. I have massive respect for the people who love to grind their teeth along the road, but I don’t think that’s for me.’
Corlett is instead drawn to the unique challenge of traversing the Australian wilderness. ‘I like the adventure.’
At several points in the film, Corlett must navigate densely overgrown, wild areas around the mountains – a difficult undertaking casually referred to as ‘bush-bashing’ throughout.
The remoteness of Corlett’s trail run adds an element of extremity and intensity that makes for an exhilarating and immersive viewing experience. But at the core of King of the Mountains as both a film and as a running track is Corlett’s emotional and introspective relationship to place.
Heavily inspired by his outdoor education high school teacher who took him on his first bush run over Mount Solitary when he was 14, Corlett returns to this location as the final stop in King of the Mountains.
Approaching the landscape with intimacy and reverence while repeatedly stressing the value of immersing oneself in all that the Blue Mountains has to offer, King of the Mountains is essentially Corlett’s love-letter to his hometown.
With an abundance of sweeping, cinematic shots capturing the region’s dramatic and picturesque terrain, King of the Mountains showcases the Mountains as a beautiful place that’s worth the visit.
‘It’s only a two-hour drive from Sydney [and] we’ve just had the new trains upgraded. It is so accessible for any of the eight million people in Sydney to come down and give it a crack.’
Corlett, now a Sydney resident, continues to find himself returning to the Blue Mountains every weekend to go running. Looking at his Strava today reflects his devotion: ‘My heat map is quite literally the King of the Mountains [trail].’
Expanding beyond the specific locale of the Mountains, Corlett hopes the documentary highlights the accessibility of remarkable experiences and inspires a generation of Australians to pursue their own adventures amongst the bush.
‘There’s not a high financial barrier to these things. It’s a group of 18-to-20-year-olds all making this happen. There’s not expensive RVs driving around. We’re not sleeping in hotels. We’re doing it pretty damn rough.’
King of the Mountains will screen at the Edge Cinema in Katoomba, NSW, on 26 November 2025.
This article is published as part of ArtsHub’s Creative Journalism Fellowship, an initiative supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW.
