Another calls it a "repetitious, half-baked, contrived and crudely staged homily on female empowerment [that] tells us less about Kazakh nomads than Pocahontas does about the Algonquins in 17th Century Virginia". The only artistic licence he took, he insists, is the opening sequence in which a hunter sets his bird free (the Kazakhs release their eagles after seven years, deeming them to have entered the stage of their lives when they are ready to become parents themselves). "I started to train when I was 10 years old, going into the mountains with my dad," she told the BBC, while passing through Ulan Bator recently. Shohan's daughter, Eagle Festival, Ulgii, Mongolia, 2015. We took about 700 kilos [1500 lbs.] I've never really seen Agalai, the father, get that emotional. It sounds a little like a Disney movie, perhaps, but The Eagle Huntress is a documentary of uncommon beauty, shot in western Mongolia in three grabs between July 2014 and February 2015. FIG 2.6. The recent Huntress mini has revealed that the current Huntress is in fact Helena Wayne, and that Helena Bertinelli is an alias of hers in the current continuity. 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. 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 ). But Aisholpan is a rarity, and an especially telegenic one at that. Aisholpan's younger sister intends to carry on the family's heritage when Aisholpan leaves for college. ", "The Eagle Huntress Review: A Problematic Documentary", "The Eagle Huntress: Ancient Traditions and New Generations", "A 13-year-old eagle huntress in Mongolia", "Teenage Eagle Hunter is Mongolia's New Movie Star", "The internet may love eagle huntresses, but the eagle hunters certainly don't", "A Documentary Star is Born: The Girl Who Hunts with Eagles", "Interview: Aisholpan Nurgaiv and Director Otto Bell Talk to Me About The Eagle Huntress and Girl Power", "13-Year-Old Eagle Huntress Gives Great Advice for People Too Scared to Follow Their Dreams", "Interview: Otto Bell on the Structure of, "The Eagle Huntress Wins Best Documentary at Hamptons Film Fest", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Eagle_Huntress&oldid=1110165508, This page was last edited on 14 September 2022, at 00:12. We caught up with her to find out what life's like in Mongo. In April 2014, the New York-based Englishman saw an online image of her setting an eagle free. http://realscreen.com/2016/02/12/celluloid-dreams-picks-up-the-eagle-huntress/, Saito, Stephen. December 20, 2016 at 1:44AM, Edited December 20, 1:54AM. I just had to get there and make sure we captured it.". A Blazing Weapon: Unraveling the Mystery of Greek Fire, New Moai Statue Found on Chiles Easter Island Excites Researchers, 2,000-Year-Old Roman Phallus Could Be Oldest Known Sex Toy, Curious Mussel Shell Arrowheads in Norways Mountains Confound Archaeologists, Huge Wari Empire Temple from 800 AD Unearthed in the Highlands of Peru, What is Shambhala? "The Eagle Hunterss [sic] Story." Idaho House Where 4 College Students Were Stabbed To Death Will Be Destroyed. 2023 BBC. NFS: What do Aisholpan and her family think of the film? But since antiquity, the challenging conditions on the steppes have meant that men and women engaged in strenuous riding and other activities together. Bell: We never had a crew of more than three or four people. Aisholpan wasn't looking for some sort of public validation. "I stalked him on Facebook," he says, "and then I Skyped him.". Duchardt, Kilmeny. 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. Martina, who shot lots of lovely verite and lived with the family for a few weeks to kind of get a texture of everyday life, shot with a C300. [25] The filmmakers made Aisholpan and her family "profit participants" in the documentary and established a fund to help pay for Aisholpan's higher education. Barkman, Carl. Despite her criticisms of the film, the historian Adrienne Mayor agrees that Aisholpan is a worthy heroine. tailored to your instructions. Aimoldir's father, Mana Dayanbek, believes that Aimoldir is destined to be an eagle huntress because Kazakh nomads . These stunning photographs show the changing face of a majestic centuries old Kazakh pastime tradition that still lives in the lands of mongolia - eagle hunters. 2023 NONETWORK, LLC. "Lauren McGough Apprentices wtih Eagle Faconers in Mongolia." Bell could hardly believe his luck, though he hadn't brought high-end camera gear because he hadn't imagined he'd be leaping straight into production. Soma, Keen, McGough, and the Kazkahs themselves affirm that anyone young or old, male or female, is free to find a teacher, "capture and own their eagle, and hunt without any restrictions. Rather than exclusive to Kazakh masculinity," brkitshi techniques are shared with community members, elders, wives, and children, even non-Kazakhs. It's not like you can really direct, either; you can't be like, "Go back to one." Shooting 'The Eagle Huntress'Credit: Andrew Yarme, Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics. "What a baby sees in the nest, it then repeats when it grows up.". Photographer's Blog, Reuters, March 6. http://blogs.reuters.com/photographers-blog/2012/03/06/kazakhstans-lone-female-eagle-hunter/. Archaeologists working in a desolate and remote area of the Central Asian country of Kazakhstan have made a remarkable discovery. I was blessed by such elders as Tleubek Esimbek, Aben Toktasynov, Seitzhan Kodekov. I really enjoyed the research for this article. The shot had been taken by Israeli photographer Asher Svidensky, and Bell immediately made contact. "I can't pay you," he warned, "but we're going to go track down this girl, see what the story is.". I saw his spellbinding work, and was like, "There's got to be a film behind that photo." 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. Her quiet confidence, application to her studies she's a straight-A student at the school at which she boards during the week and, above all, her bond with her family make her a dream. "It looks like 30 people shot it, but in reality it was only three of us.". In addition to her dreams of becoming an eagle huntress, she also wants to be a doctor when she grows up. How lucky we all are to have known her, and how awful that we have to say . 2015. ADRIENNE MAYOR is a research scholar in the Classics Department and History and Philosophy of Science and Technology Program at Stanford University. Bell: Yeah, we drove back to the village every night right on the border there between Mongolia and China. Bell: Actually, we had so much, we had to leave about 200 kilos in Ulaanbaatar [Mongolia], the capital city, in a locked room in the airport. It's "engineered storytelling" he says. NFS: How did you find these dream characters, Aisholpan and her amazing dad? about Bronze Age Sexism In Horses May or May Not Extend to Human Society! Central Asian Falconry Project. "They are very reserved people, so I had to keep my feelings in check, but inside I was punching the air. Historian of Central Asian falconry Takuya Soma points out that falconry disappeared in other less open, sedentary societies. That sort of thing. 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.". "But we ended up filming that amazing sequence, and that became the heart of the first act.". 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. "I told my dad that I wanted to become an eagle huntress.". The Eagle Huntress is an amazing documentary. 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. National Geographic 62 (Nov.): 513-80. Rent $3.99. Meghan Fitz-James, a Canadian traveller who spent time with Aisholpan's family, also says that one scene showing Aisholpan training for the eagle festival was in fact shot three days later, in a four-hour shoot with coaching and retakes. 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. Just mountains, tents, gers, and goats. And how did a first-time filmmaker get the likes of Daisy Ridley, Morgan Spurlock, and Stacey Reiss behind his project? The film's soundtrack features the original song "Angel by the Wings" by Sia, which was released worldwide on 2 December 2016. Bronze Age Sexism In Horses May or May Not Extend to Human Society! Despite Dennis Keen's above-noted assertion, in a 8 March 2014 article entitled " " (https://egemen.kz/article/29988-on-ushinde-qondyrghan-qolgha-qyran) by Suleimen Mamet for Egemen Qazaqstan news, eagle huntress, Makpal Abrazakova, said: "Realizing my enthusiasm, my father deliberately took me to the eagle hunters on the slopes of Alatau [Qazaqstan] and introduced me to the eagle hunters. 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. Aimoldir Dayanbek and her father, Mana Dayanbek. He introduced me to Stacey. And I was like, 'Oh, God, we're going to have to come back'. Bell: They saw it for the first time at Sundance. She actually captures her own Eagle chick whilst her father lowers her . Will Dunn in the New Statesman is also bothered by the film's "re-enactment and editorialising", though he notes that without the imposed girl-power narrative it's "a film about the fox-hunting techniques of Mongolian Kazakhs, a subject that is not exactly a banker at the box office". [15][16] After historical evidence and facts were published about nomadic steppe women participating in training eagles to hunt from antiquity to the present day,[17] the filmmakers corrected early reports placed in media outlets that Aisholpan was "the only" woman in the world hunting with an eagle. She belongs to a family of nomads who spend their summers in a ger in the Altai Mountains and their winters in a house in town. Adrienne Mayor , Research Scholar in Classics and History of Science, Stanford University, is the author of The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women across the Ancient World (2014), and The Poison King: Mithradates, Romes Deadliest Enemy , nonfiction finalist for the 2009 National Book Award. And it's no surprisethat this movie has people buzzing. We knew they would do things five, 10, 20 times until she got it right. These stunning photographs show the changing face of a majestic centuries old Kazakh pastime tradition that still lives in the lands of mongolia - eagle hunters. Train crash an 'unimaginable tragedy' - Greek president, Survivors describe 'nightmarish seconds' as trains crashed, Rescuers search wreckage of deadly Greece train crash. Please try again later. FIG 2.3. In 2012, Shamil Zhumatov reported for Reuters on a Kazakh eagle hunter called Makpal Abdrazakova, who goes hunting with an eagle when she's not working as a lawyer. Join the conversation - find us on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter. Tarim,! Asian Conference on Asian Studies, International Academic Forum. Huge thumbs up to the filmmakers and their journey to capture such a great story in a cinematic way. With her broad face, perfect teeth and sparkling eyes, Aisholpan could have come straight from central casting. 4.3 51 Ratings. And also, congratulations to the filmmaker for such a stunning work, I too look at some pictures and think about the cinematic possibilities behind them, but you really went ahead and made it. Aisholpan loves it, which is good. It feels seamless despite having GoPro, C300s, and Epics. Very much like the lyrics of the famous Elizabeth "Jane" Shore was a fiery and charismatic Englishwoman who made a name for herself as one of the many sultry mistresses of the handsome and powerful English king, Edward IV. One of the heartwarmers at this year's Sundance Film Festival was " The Eagle Huntress ," a documentary about a 13-year-old Kazakh girl living in northwest Mongolia, determined . [3] It follows the story of Aisholpan Nurgaiv, a 13-year-old Kazakh girl from Mongolia, as she attempts to become the first female eagle hunter to compete in the eagle festival at Ulgii, Mongolia, established in 1999. As a movie, "The Eagle Huntress" would have made a great . Others were already on the trail, so Bell had to move quickly. That year, a young horsewoman with an eagle appeared at the festival in Ulgii, Mongolia; in 2013, a young eagle huntress attended the festival in Nura, Kazakhstan. Tradition stands in her way. The Eagle Huntress, a documentary about a Kazakh nomad girl in Mongolia learning to hunt with a golden eagle, divides opinion. Move heaven and earth. VideoRescuers search wreckage of deadly Greece train crash, Blackpink lead top stars back on the road in Asia, 'Wales is in England' gaffe sparks TikToker's trip, Ukraine war casts shadow over India's G20 ambitions, Record numbers of guide dog volunteers after BBC story. A lot of things broke. As Greek mythology goes, the universe was once a big soup of nothingness. The Truth Behind the Christ Myth: Ancient Origins of the Often Used Legend Part I, Library in Stone: The Ica Stones of Professor Cabrera Part I, Two Sides to Every Story: The North American Martyrs Shrines and Indigenous/ Roman Catholic Relations, The Origins of the Faeries: Encoded in our Cultures Part I, Curse of the Buried Pearl: The Hunt for Ancient Treasures Part I, The Enigma of the Shugborough Inscription, The Eagle Huntress: Ancient Traditions, and Evidence for Women as Eagle Hunters Part I, 4,000-Year-Old Tablets with Evidence of Bronze Age Rights for Women Discovered in Turkey, Ancient ivory tablets reveal high status of Illyrian women, Ten Powerful and Fearsome Women of the Ancient World, Amazon Warrior Woman on Horseback Discovered on 2,500-Year-Old Vase, Scholars decipher names of Amazon warrior women from ancient pottery, Theodora: From humble beginnings to powerful empress who changed history, http://www.primaoutdoor.com/lauren-mcgough-apprentices-with-eagle-falconers-in-mongolia/, http://www.barkman.nl/en/werk_compleet.jsp?categorie=1&nummer=1, http://mobile.reuters.com/video/2012/03/08/female-eagle-hunter-reaches-new-heights?videoId=231446109, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxzClfYV6WY, http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-16315799, http://astanatimes.com/2014/11/expert-falconers-gather-kokshetau-honour-legendary-falconer-masip-batyrkhanuly/, http://blogs.reuters.com/photographers-blog/2012/03/06/kazakhstans-lone-female-eagle-hunter/, http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26969150, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/17/13-year-old-eagle-huntress-mongolia_n_5162623.html, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1AuX2v0KGg&ebc=ANyPxKrGAA9rbsdHRmQPckpsIlvlfz650dckpgie6VKJ2qqe18vSjhT2qz6P9exypxTjrmLefR0a, http://realscreen.com/2016/02/12/celluloid-dreams-picks-up-the-eagle-huntress/, http://moveablefest.com/moveable_fest/2016/01/otto-bell-eagle-huntress.html, http://nytlive.nytimes.com/womenintheworld/2015/10/16/ashol-pan-eagle-hunter/, http://variety.com/2014/film/news/kissaki-films-otto-bell-to-direct-ashol-pan-documentary-eagle-huntress-1201263741/, http://www.scip.be/index.php?Page=PhotosMongolia&Lang=EN&ID=2941, http://www.startribune.com/mongolian-visit-takes-flight-with-eagle-hunting/288072881/#1, The Unfinished Timurid Mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi, Tamgaly Petroglyphs: Rituals, Shaman and Nomads Treasures, Silk Road Cat Pushes Back Central Asia Domestication to 8th-century AD.