Watch the official trailer for “Bombs to Booze” in the video player above.

(MONUMENT, Colo.) — Veterans Day is Tuesday, Nov. 11, and a local director from Colorado Springs is reflecting on the success of her first documentary about a veteran turned moonshine distiller in Monument, which explores the mental health struggles our veterans face and the resources to help.

“Earlier this year, “Bomb’s to Booze” was nominated for a Regional Heartland EMMY®,” Director Lauryn Ritchie recently shared with FOX21 News. “The gala was in July of this year in Denver, where the winners were announced.”

Courtesy: FOX21 News, Lauryn Ritchie, the director of “Bombs to Booze,” spoke to FOX21 News on Thursday, Nov. 6.

Ritchie said it was an honor to be recognized. “We, unfortunately, were not a winner, but just being nominated was an award enough for me.”

FOX21 first spoke with Ritchie back in late September of 2024, where she shared that “Bombs to Booze” was released on Prime Video.

The documentary follows the life of Mike Girard, a retired Army Bomb Tech turned owner of 3 Hundred Days Distilling in Monument, whose passion is rooted in helping veterans find the mental health support they need after returning to civilian life.

Courtesy: FOX21 News, Mike Girard spoke to FOX21 News about “Bombs to Booze” in Oct. 2024.

Ritchie, a Colorado State University Alum, said releasing her first documentary has been a whirlwind. “This was my first project post-graduation, and so it was really a crash course in real-world filmmaking,” she reflected. “I feel like I learned so much; I’ve changed so much as a filmmaker and a documentarian over the past few years of working on this.”

Ritchie said the documentary has been positively received by the community and thanked Girard for helping to bring the project to fruition. “…he was just so patient, and he trusted me and trusted my vision and my process and brought his own expertise of the actual topic to the table.”

She went on to say that feedback from the community has been extremely rewarding.

“I get texts from Mike every now and then, texts from family members of people who’ve watched the documentary, and they’ll send such beautiful, personal, eloquent stories about how touched they were, how well-done the documentary was, and how it made them emotional or elicited some sort of emotional reaction from them that encouraged them to send it to a family member, send it to a friend, or to actually seek treatment themselves,” she explained.

Ritchie shared that she and Girard agreed that the heart and soul behind the project was helping people. “If we could just convince one person to seek treatment, then all of our hard work would be worth it. And at this point, we’ve heard from several people that it encouraged them to reach out for help or go to therapy, or start conversations with their loved ones.”

A mission Girard continues to advocate for each year with an annual event called the ‘0.K. for Veterans Mental Health.’

Courtesy: FOX21 News, Mike Girard, the owner of 3 Hundred Days Distilling, hosts an annual event called ‘0.K. for Veterans Mental Health,’ which focuses on connecting “Colorado veterans and their support networks with the mental health resources they need.”

“It’s essentially an event that is intended to put veterans directly in touch with organizations that can help them improve their quality of life, and he shows the documentary every year at that event and says that it always has a very positive response.”

Ritchie said while she hopes to do more work specifically with veterans’ mental health in the future, she continues to work on another project she’s also very excited about.

“So I’m currently working on another documentary… It’s actually about food insecurity in northern Colorado, and that is in production right now.”

Ritchie credits the success of her first film also to her family and said that the documentary hit especially close to home as her dad is in the Air Force and her parents live in Monument.

“They’ve been my biggest cheerleaders throughout the entire process,” she said. “They actually helped me on set because I didn’t have any extra hands… My dad was actually the one who interviewed all of our subjects for the documentary, and so they’ve been very involved since the beginning and just could not be prouder of where it’s gone.”

Her message to up-and-coming filmmakers is this:

“I think my biggest advice would just be to make something. It doesn’t have to be good, and you never know where it’s going to end up,” she said. “I mean, this project was initially supposed to be just a five-minute little interview with Mike that I was going to throw up on YouTube because I was between graduation and getting my first job, and I just needed something to fill my time and something to boost my portfolio. And then once I took the project on, I realized how much bigger it was.”

“Bombs to Booze” is available to watch on Prime Video. If you’d like to visit 3 Hundred Days Distilling, it is located at 279 Beacon Lite Road, Suite G, in Monument.

If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. The 988 suicide and crisis lifeline can be reached 24 hours a day, 7 days a week by phone, chat or text. Call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org.