But you know she'll never be able to hack it in winter.' In 2013, Asher Svidensky photographed Kazakh brkitshi in Mongolia and with the help of his guide discovered Aisholpan Nurgaiv, the 13-year-old daughter of an eagle hunter. From Wonder Woman #295 (1982); art by Joe Staton and Jerry Ordway. As Belgian photographer Stefan Cruysberghs remarked, Amanbol and Bazarbai are the new generation [who] will make sure these ancient traditions will be kept alive., FIG 2.8. Except the conflict never really happens. The men in her family have been eagle hunters for seven generations,[6] and she wants to follow in their footsteps. Bell: Oh, it was the biggest whim of my life. Aisholpan (left) at school, in The Eagle Huntress.Credit:Asher Svidensky. There are other moments that critics grumble about. Ren Bo Hansen). About this movie arrow_forward The Eagle Huntress follows Aisholpan, a 13-year-old girl, as she trains to become the first female in twelve generations of her Kazakh family to become an eagle. "Visit to Mongolia's Altai Mountains Takes Flight with Eagle Hunting" Report on 2104 Ulgii festival. http://www.svidensky.com/post-aspx-id-18, Thomson, Augusta. ", Aisholpan's performance at the competition provides the film with a climax of sorts, but to Bell it felt too much like a sports movie. Others were already on the trail, so Bell had to move quickly. Anybody who could carry a camera, did. THE EAGLE HUNTRESS follows Aisholpan, a 13-year-old girl, as she trains to become the first female in twelve generations of her Kazakh family to become an eagle hunter, and rises to the pinnacle of a tradition that has been handed down from father to son for centuries. What is the origin of the legend of the Christed Son who was born of a virgin on December 25th? I'm thrilled she'll be bringing that same energy to supporting a real-world heroine who is also on an epic journey to win victory in a far away land. While The Eagle Huntress showed Aisholpan's father Nurgaiv passing on his hunting skills to his daughter with a calm wisdom, not all locals were depicted as being so supportive. It's a nice way they supplement their base income of herding. When you're a nomad out there, you can go for days without seeing another soul. My cameraman, Simon, is a bit of an inventor as well. Aisholpan, National Geographic 2014, and Otto Bell's The Eagle Huntress Sundance poster 2016. eagleto be their hunting companions, the early nomads made the harsh, unforgiving steppes into a land rich with accessible game for furs and food. But as the project progressed, he says, "it just became very clear that it was a story about a dad and his daughter. In interviews, press releases, and publicity for the film--despite widespread knowledge in 2014 of Makpal Adrazakova'sprior eagle hunting--Aisholpan is presented as the only girl in history to become an eagle hunter, defying Kazakh elders' belief that women are "too fragile and weak." 2015. "I was looking around at pop culture at that time and you had Khaleesi, the mother of dragons [from Game of Thrones], you had Katniss Everdeen [from The Hunger Games], you had Rey [from Star Wars: The Force Awakens]. Train crash an 'unimaginable tragedy' - Greek president, Survivors describe 'nightmarish seconds' as trains crashed, Rescuers search wreckage of deadly Greece train crash. In retrospect, it was the biggest gamble I've ever taken. The Huntress (Helena Wayne) rescues Alfred from the Crimelord. He had been shooting long-form documentary-style commercials for years, and had been dreaming of making a film of his own. Touching 4,000-Year-Old Royal Double Burial Found in Kazakhstan, Archaeologists Unearth the Golden Man of the Saka Burial Mound in Kazakhstan. Amanbol at Eagle Festival, Ulgii, Mongolia, 2014. I imagine they don't watch a lot of media, so how did you convince them of what you were trying to do? Subtitled. Astana Times (Kazakhstan), Nov. 17. http://astanatimes.com/2014/11/expert-falconers-gather-kokshetau-honour-legendary-falconer-masip-batyrkhanuly/, Zhumatov, Shamil. <br /><br />Set in the beautifully mountains of Bayan -Ulgii province, in the far west of the open steppes of . FIG 2.3. Jan. 26. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1AuX2v0KGg&ebc=ANyPxKrGAA9rbsdHRmQPckpsIlvlfz650dckpgie6VKJ2qqe18vSjhT2qz6P9exypxTjrmLefR0a, Real Screen . When I finally saw the film at TIFF 2016, I had to find out for myself: How did this remarkable documentary get made? Finding the Right Balance Between Weird and Cinematic with Cinematographer Ross Riege, Documentary Filmmaker/Multi-platform Producer. Soma, Takuya. The Eagle Huntress is so beautifully shot you'd almost book passage to visit this isolated world in Mongolia by the China border. It's clear that Bell approached his subject with the canny eye of a man trained in the art of crafting images to sell a message. There was a lot of tears and a lot of happiness. She is the daughter of Shohan, a prominent eagle hunter in Mongolia. "I stalked him on Facebook," he says, "and then I Skyped him.". It is obvious to any astronomer that some of the brightest objects in the night sky are the planets. I was blessed by such elders as Tleubek Esimbek, Aben Toktasynov, Seitzhan Kodekov. "Lauren McGough Apprentices wtih Eagle Faconers in Mongolia." "Makpal, First Woman Eagle Hunter in Modern Kazkahstan." THE EAGLE HUNTRESS is a coming-of-age documentary that tells the story of 13-year-old Aisholpan's desire to be the first female eagle hunter in 12 generations of her family. "Expert Falconers to Gather in Kokshetu." Bell: Yeah, we drove back to the village every night right on the border there between Mongolia and China. I am sure you are familiar with his legend which states that he was born in a manger surrounded by shepherds, about The Unfinished Timurid Mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi, about Tamgaly Petroglyphs: Rituals, Shaman and Nomads Treasures, about Silk Road Cat Pushes Back Central Asia Domestication to 8th-century AD. The girl is charming and inspiring, holding her 15-pound bird aloft while astride a galloping pony like a pro better than, actually, shattering the record for getting her eagle White Wings to . Were theonlyPop Archaeology site combining scientific research with out-of-the-box perspectives. September 19, 2016 at 7:47AM, Edited September 19, 7:47AM. December 20, 2016 at 1:44AM, Edited December 20, 1:54AM. DeSantis won't say he's running. He got me a place to edit. What Does the Ending of 'American Psycho' Mean? The Eagle Huntress, a breathtaking . It gave me the inspiration to win," she says. But then when you get back home and you don't have any money left and it all gets a bit depressing he helped build a village of people around me.". The film features a 13-year-old girl tackling the powerful and violent act of hunting game deep in the mountainous Kazhak wildernessa tradition which has not been taken on by any other female in its 12-generation history. How did the crew shoot in subzero temperatures without destroying their equipment? An extraordinary young woman, Aisholpan has become an empowering example for girls around the world. Aisholpan and her father Agalai, Eagle Festival, Ulgii, Mongolia, 2014. We figured out we could only really film for about three hours a day. We Mongols are emancipated, Nirgidma declared in a National Geographic interview, a good horse and a wide plain, that's our desire.. We caught up with her to find out what life's like in Mongo. BBC News Magazine , April 14. http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26969150, Mosbergen, Dominique. (Photo courtesy of Meghan Fitz-James). "Up to that point," Bell says, "I'd been kind of alone and going a bit mad. It is thus mysterious that there are so few references to the planets in ancient literature. In that article she said she began going out on hunts with her grandfather as a child and went on her first hunt with her own eagle at age 15. Nirgidma with her eagle. At the end of The Eagle Huntress, Aisholpan: kills a fox and finally becomes an eagle huntress. Of course, finding a fox took forever. Video, Rescuers search wreckage of deadly Greece train crash, Record numbers of guide dog volunteers after BBC story. That was in 2011 - two or three years before Svidensky arrived on the scene - and she wasn't just training with the eagle, she was already hunting too, she says. The chief reason why eagle hunting is still practiced is the absence of strict social regulations to join. As Dennis Keen notes, "curious adults and children absorb eagle hunting not just from 'masters' but from from the culture at large." Alfred Beagle was the son of Jarvis, the former butler to the Wayne family in Gotham City . This fact is confirmed by several well-known Kazakh eagle hunters such as Agii Makhsum in Mongolia, and by other female brkitshi in Kazakhstan and Mongolia. I don't know. With her broad face, perfect teeth and sparkling eyes, Aisholpan could have come straight from central casting. 2014. As a little girl in Mongolia, Aisholpan dreamt of flying an eagle like her Dad. How did you do it? "We did it in one take, on the first afternoon. The eagles are not bred in captivity, but taken from nests at a young age. We had a Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera on the DJI S1000 drone. 2014. Aisholpan Nurgaiv is a 13-year-old girl living with her nomadic family in Mongolia's Altai mountains, a harsh, unforgiving place of isolation and physical duress. 2016. A highly educated member of the Torghut/Oirat/Kalmyk nomads who ranged from the Altai to the Tarim Basin, Nirgidma was photographed with her hunting eagle in 1932 in Urumqi (where the mummified eagle huntress now resides, see Part 1 ). Her father ties a rope around her waist, and she clamours down the cliff face to capture her very own eagle. "The Eagle Hunterss [sic] Story." Competitions; Wanderlust magazine . [27], Last edited on 14 September 2022, at 00:12, Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, https://egemen.kz/article/29988-on-ushinde-qondyrghan-qolgha-qyran, https://astanatimes.com/2014/03/falconry-tournament-tests-ancient-skills/, "Mongolia's Teen Eagle Huntress Deserves to Be the Next Elsa", "Oscar documentary shortlist focuses on politics and race", "BAFTA nominations: 'La La Land' leads with 11; 'Arrival,' 'Nocturnal Animals' nab 9 each - Full list & notable omissions", "Teenage 'Eagle Huntress' Overturns 2,000 Years Of Male Tradition", "The Incredible Story Behind the Film "The Eagle Huntress", "How a movie about eagle hunting nabbed a, "Review: In 'The Eagle Huntress,' a girl from Mongolia soars", "Sundance fights tide with films like 'The Birth of a Nation', "Is The Eagle Huntress Really a Documentary? Huge thumbs up to the filmmakers and their journey to capture such a great story in a cinematic way. Director: Otto Bell. And it's one of a number of scenes that some critics have assumed was staged. I filmed it like I would film a live sports event," he says. It feels seamless despite having GoPro, C300s, and Epics. "A 13-year-old Eagle Huntress in Mongolia." "My feeling was just because it's a true story that doesn't mean it can't also be beautiful. Timur Sanat. And it's true that when he first saw that image of Aisholpan, he knew there was something zeitgeisty in it. of gear, about 28 Pelican cases. "The blessing scene - he said he was going to do this, I just asked him to do it outside. This was deliberate; it helps younger audiences track along. [26] They also donated the $3,000 prize money they received from winning Best Documentary at the Hamptons International Film Festival to this fund. Part of the films better-than-Disney magic comes from the fact that its protagonist's (. It is up for a Bafta award on Sunday night but missed out on an Oscar nomination, possibly because to some viewers it feels staged. Eagle hunting is traditionally passed down among male relatives, but there are no religious or cultural prohibitions against a girl becoming an eagle hunter ( brkitshi, berkutchi ). Apparently unaware of Makpal and other girls learning skills, Svidensky cited extreme cold and difficult terrain as the reason eagle hunting was reserved for males, and portrayed Aisholpan as the only girl. I took my young daughter to see The Eagle Huntress and I think every father should do the same (take your daughter, that is, not mine). In 2015, Aisholpan and Amanbol attended the Ulgii festival, along with a third young girl brkitshi apprentice. He said, "It's fantastic. That was the question for Simon Niblett, director of photography of documentary The Eagle Huntress, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and is planned to unspool during the Telluride. Incredible. Bell: Exactly, yeah. The hardest thing I've ever done in my life. Aimoldir's father, Mana Dayanbek, believes that Aimoldir is destined to be an eagle huntress because Kazakh nomads . "I haven't seen anything like this, how can I help you get this thing finished," he wrote. Barkman, Carl. "Get lost! "Her bravery and her feats in that eagle hunting contest are really amazing and inspiring," she says. Seeing commitment and talent in me they bestowed me with an eaglet/baby eagle which they thought/predicted could become a best hunting eagle in the future." Filled with stunning photographs, The Eagle Huntress is a striking tale of determination -- of a girl who defied expectations and achieved what others declared impossible. Were sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. The film's soundtrack features the original song "Angel by the Wings" by Sia, which was released worldwide on 2 December 2016. 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