Ceremony – Documentary film by Sas Carey

Friday, July 1st, 5:30 – 7 pm
American Corner Presentation Room, Natsagdorj Library, Ulaanbaatar

About CEREMONY

CEREMONY is a spiritual journey among shamans in northern Mongolia. The documentary revolves around a specific ceremony in the steppes. Outside we see mists with reindeer emerging, smoke coming from stovepipes through the poles of the Siberian tipis or urts, animals grazing on the steppe, and the moon in a clear sky. Inside, we experience a mysterious ritual as a shaman slips into a trance around midnight when the stars come out. The master shaman beats the drum, chants, dances, and takes on the spirit. He then motions to his young shaman apprentice to begin playing a mouth harp. The shaman and others give commentaries on the events during the ceremony to help the viewer comprehend the mysterious phenomenon.

Following the film there will be an open discussion with Sas Carey and other experts on shamanism and life in the Taiga.

Sas Carey, Biography
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sas-carey-71538b19

As a seeker for the place where earth, spirit, and healing intersect, Sas Carey has been searching in Mongolia for over two decades. She is a registered nurse, energy healer, educator, author, and filmmaker. Following her first trip to Mongolia with the American Holistic Nurses’ Association in 1994, she founded and now directs the not-for-profit Nomadicare (nomadicare.org).

Nomadicare supports the sustainability and cultural survival of nomadic peoples by harmonizing traditional and modern medicine and documenting nomadic life ways, lore, and heart songs. Being an AFS foreign exchange student in high school was the start of her passion to know cultures and people beyond a superficial level. From an energy connection with her first step on Mongolian ground, she explored traditional Mongolian medicine, served as a health educator for the United Nations Development Programme, created a documentary about Gobi women called “Gobi Women’s Song”, and published a book, Reindeer Herders in My Heart.

The journey naturally intersected with shamans who seemed to embody the connection of earth, spirit, and healing. By plane, train, car, horse and reindeer, Sas Carey travels each year to the Dukha reindeer herders, Mongolia’s smallest ethnic group, to experience their life and learn from them. She rides reindeer, migrated from the spring to summer camp, focused healing energy on shamans, and created a seven-year health database for herders. She was given her own reindeer, named Sas.

She lives in Vermont and spends two months in Mongolia each summer. All her movies are about Mongolia’s nomadic life.

Movies:

Migration, 80 minutes, 2016 (Earth’s Choice Award at the Earth Day Festival in San Francisco, official selection at Parnu Film Festival, Estonia)

CEREMONY, 45-minute documentary, 2015 (screened in New York, Washington DC, Chicago and along the east coast of the US)

Taiga Heart Song, 7-minute documentary on youTube, 2007
Gobi Women’s Song, 73-minute documentary, 2005

Steppe Herbs, Mare’s Milk and Jelly Jars: A Journey to Mongolian Medicine, 19- minute documentary, 1995