Gobi Woman Song - Documentary Film, Mongolian Nomadic Women
Region: Central Asia, Mongolia
Author: Mongolian Medicine
Project, Sas Carey
Consortium Member: Virtual Foundation
Director (ECOLOGIA)
Status: Funded and Ongoing Budget:
$93824 Collected: $59257 Needs: $34567
Result: An
educational film about nomadic women's health and lifestyle is documenting a way
of life that is disappearing as modern life impinges and provides nomads with an
alternative to their traditional dependence on the
environment.
Donors: Anonymous, Vermont [2005 & 2006]; Vermont
Arts Council [February 2005]; Anonymous, New York State [May 2005]; National
Endowment for the Arts; Mongolian American Cultural
Association
Comment: This film will be made available to Mongolians
and to others who need to know about the sustainable life of one of the earth’s
most remarkable people.
Goal
An educational film about nomadic women’s health and lifestyle is documenting a way of life that is disappearing as terrain is threatened by long-term drought, and people and animals endangered by disease. This film will be made available to Mongolians and to others who need to know about the sustainable life of one of the earth’s most remarkable people. Photo: Dulma, a nomadic herder in the Gobi Desert, with her one-day old daughter Altjin. Sas Carey is at right.
Implementation:
Since 2001, Sas Carey has traveled in Mongolia to shoot documentary film footage of health, spirit and life, especially of women in two different regions. In the summer of 2004, she returned to Manlai Sum, South Gobi to film a herder family which she has been following since the birth of their child in 2002. She also traveled to Huvsgul to film a shaman ceremony. Now with years of unique, original still and motion film footage, and audio recordings, she is creating a film for widespread distribution, in English and in Mongolian.
Questions from the Virtual Foundation Proposal Review Committee, and answers from the project organizer, Sas Carey (2004):
Question: How accessible will a video be to the populations you will be
filming? Will the film then be used as a fundraiser? What audience will be
targeted? What are the people being filmed being told about
follow-up?
Answer "The funding of this grant will be used to film in
Mongolia in summer 2004. The next step, to edit this film over the winter will
need additional funding for time and expertise. When finished, the film will be
offered through the Central Asian listserv, in college film catalogs, agencies,
libraries, and PBS stations. I have film contacts in California, Minnesota, NYC
and Vermont who will guide me when I get to the distribution part of the
project. It will be used as a fundraiser, with the target population being the
health and human services sectors.
"In Mongolia, I have already shown some pieces of the footage on
the Manlai Soum local TV station. The rural people were excited to see
themselves. I gave the community a copy of the video. I also took my laptop,
external hard drive extra batteries, and camera to the film’s star Dulma's
grouping of gers (yurts) and showed her community the footage I had taken the
year before along with the footage we took while visiting. I did the same with
the Reindeer Herders—showed them what I had taken. When it is finished, Mongol
TV will show the film and it will be available for Mongolian schools, libraries
and agencies working in Mongolia. Photo: Dulma nursing Altjin
Question: What are the people being filmed being told about
follow-up?
Answer: "They know that they will be shown the film. They
have already seen benefits from it because the doctor interviewed in 2001 said
her dream was a laboratory and we took her one the next year and the whole
county has access to better health care. They trust me to honor them with the
film, and know it will be used in ways to help them and other Mongolians."
Background on Sas Carey and the Mongolian Medicine Project
The goal of the Mongolian Medicine Project is to bring health options across borders and cultural lines and to educate the different peoples about each other in a deeply honest way. Its founder, Sas Carey of Vermont, began strengthening her work as a nurse and spiritual healer to learn concepts of balance for Western health care. Since her first trip to Mongolia in 1994, she has been fascinated with its people and culture, and has developed and implemented projects in her field of expertise. All Mongolian Medicine Projects come from roots in meditation and deep listening to Mongolians.
While in Mongolia to learn about energy and balance and their application to healing in traditional medicine, Sas Carey discovered that hospitals there need what the West has —not million dollar machines, but basic laboratories. She developed a project which has already provided laboratories, supplies and training to four hospitals in rural areas. While visiting rural areas in Mongolia, she discovered that Mongolian Medicine had practically disappeared. This culturally appropriate, and sustainable method can be used effectively, so she is promoting scholarships for rural doctors, to enable them to combine traditional and western methods in their public health practice. Most recently, while assessing the health of Reindeer Herders (Tsaatan or Dukha people) in northern Mongolia, she understood their need for vitamins to prevent scurvy and blindness. Finally, she has been filming her experiences for 10 years, to share with Mongolians so they will not forget the disappearing nomad life, and for the rest of us who need to know about the sustainable life of some of Earth’s most remarkable people.
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