Bjorn Stickle of Burlington received a congressional flag flown at the U.S. Capitol building in honor of the “deep space premiere” of his film, “14000 Miles,” which he completed June 11.

A documentary created by Bjorn Stickle of Burlington is advertised on a billboard in Times Square.

Bjorn Stickle of Burlington received a congressional flag flown at the U.S. Capitol building in honor of the “deep space premiere” of his film, “14000 Miles,” which he completed June 11.

A documentary created by Bjorn Stickle of Burlington is advertised on a billboard in Times Square.

BURLINGTON — The first time Bjorn Stickle saw the Northern Lights, he had just exited an outhouse in the middle of a field in Alberta, Canada.

“This is hilarious,” he said, noting his own humble location as he thought of people who traveled to Iceland to see the colorful Aurora Borealis.

It was one of many unexpected sights on Stickle’s 14,000-mile road trip — one that would lead to an independent feature-length documentary, “14000 Miles,” that would have him cross the paths of countless strangers. The film eventually would be beamed up to the North Star, drawing the attention of a U.S. senator.

Stickle’s trip started in Vancouver, Canada. It would take him through Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina, Washington D.C., New York, Boston, Toronto, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska, Montana, Alberta, Okanagan, Vancouver Island, and finally, back to his Skagit County home in Burlington.

Armed with a Google Pixel 3 smartphone, Stickle would film 50 interviews on his 64-day drive.

When he started, he didn’t know what would happen.

Stickle launched the Kickstarter campaign for his film in July 2019. His old teachers from Skagit County and people from Stickle’s church chipped in — giving $5, $20, $30.

In total, he raised $1,600, which he used to pay for a gimbal and lens for his Pixel 3 and gas for the drive.

Stickle had deep philosophical questions he wanted to explore. What is your definition of love? What does sacrifice really mean?

In his time on the road, he interviewed a cast of characters: residents of a dying mill town in northern Wisconsin, Chinese billionaires, two centenarian brothers, tech workers and rural farmers.

He slept in hotels and at his interviewees’ homes, spending days building rapport with his subjects and learning about their unique perspectives before heading off for the next eight-hour drive.

“It was like an unending stream of having to sell yourself while being physically tired because you’re driving and meeting new people and having to explain who you are and what you’re doing,” Stickle said.

Virtually every person Stickle interviewed pointed him to someone new to talk to, he said.

“I visited (some) of the places that I went just because somebody made a phone call for me being like, ‘Oh, you’re going to this part of the United States … I have a brother or I know somebody there. Why don’t you go visit?’” Stickle said.

By the end, he had amassed 72 hours of video.

Everyone Stickle talked to provided a unique perspective to his questions on life and philosophy, colored by life experiences ranging from the access to education they received to their careers, he said.

“Philosophy, there’s no real right or wrong answer,” Stickle said. “... Nobody was really wrong, but they just answered it in their own unique way.”

The trip ended Nov. 4, 2019, in Burlington. The next day, he started editing.

Stickle moved to New York in February 2020, where he met an “angel investor” who provided enough funding to hire a team for the editing and creation of a soundtrack for the film.

“I’ve never dedicated two years of my life to a project,” Stickle said. “ … You have no idea that a year and a half in (that) you’re going to be a music producer on top of everything.”

While editing, Stickle also worked full-time as a nursing liaison and took online courses at Pace University. After his shifts, he went online to work with his team of editors, audio engineers and musicians from around the world — working through multiple time zones with contacts in Canada, the U.S., Nigeria, Madagascar, Thailand, Norway and Switzerland.

Stickle finished the film on June 11, nearly two years after his Kickstarter campaign began.

Advertisements for “14000 Miles” hung on posters on Granville Street in Vancouver, Canada, and Grand Central Station in Oslo, Norway, and appeared on billboards in New York’s Times Square.

An acquaintance of Stickle’s who works at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab watched the film. As a salute to independent and student filmmakers, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab let Stickle choose where in outer space he wanted to stream the film.

He chose the North Star.

“My face is shooting across the universe to hit the North Star. … If I do a bad job — if the aliens don’t like it — it’s my fault if they invade,” Stickle said. “... It’s really weird to think about the fact that I could die tomorrow, but … something that I did is going to be out in the universe, no matter what happens on Earth, for the next 400 light years.”

To Stickle’s surprise and at the special request of U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, Stickle received a congressional flag flown at the U.S. Capitol building in honor of his film’s “deep space premiere.”

Stickle is currently in the process of submitting “14000 Miles” to Amazon Prime Video for streaming and working on his next documentary.

Every person Stickle interviewed — from the musicians in Norway, Madagascar and Thailand to the help from his community in Skagit County with his Kickstarter campaign — he said the creation of “14000 Miles” was a community effort.

“If even one of these cogs in the wheel did not work, it would not have come out the way that it did,” he said.

— Reporter Benjamin Leung: bleung@skagitpublishing.com, 360-416-2156, Twitter: @goskagit

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I remember this beautiful boy from church, his family was always always so polite. He's the type of child that you know is going to go far in life. Congratulations Bjorn!

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