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ARTS+LEISURE
November 17, 2016
The Addison Independent
Sas Carey's full-length film “Migration” comes to the Town Hall Theater in Middlebury this Friday.
INDEPENDENT PHOTO/TRENT CAMPBELL
Filmmaker on the move with ‘Migration’
S
as Carey’s favorite part of filming “Migration” — her third feature-length film that will have its east coast premiere at Town Hall Theater on Friday — was riding reindeer through the mountains of northern Mongolia.
This time, Carey brought her friend and fellow filmmaker Fred Thodal (also a Middlebury resident) to capture a specific part of the Dukha’s nomadic life: migration. The Dukha center their lives around reindeer, following the tradition of their ancestors. They ride the reindeer, pack them with goods and drink their milk, which they consider sacred. Occasionally, the reindeer are honored and sacrificed for meat. But in the summer, the weather becomes too warm, and the reindeer get restless and begin to move. When that happens, the Dukha follow.
Carey, a Middlebury resident who has dabbled in energy healing, nursing, teaching and more recently, filmmaking, has been traveling to Mongolia since 1994. She met the Dukha reindeer herders while working for an organization called Nomidicare, a non-profit “IT’S A WAY OF LIFE that aims to help perpetuate nomadic cultures in Mongolia. THAT’S DISAPPEARING.”
BY EMMA COTTON
Since that first visit, Carey has been returning consistently.
— Sas Carey
“I watched a lot of changes over those years,” she said. “I made the first movie, ‘Gobi Women’s Song,’ in 2005, and I shot it from 2001 to 2004. When I went back in 2013, none of them were herders anymore. That inspired me to make a movie about people who are still nomadic on the planet, because there really aren’t that many. It’s a way of life that’s disappearing — maybe. I hope not, but it’s endangered.”
The migration is only 14 miles long, but with considerable elevation gain. The Dukha tribe — and last June, Carey and Thodal — ride on the backs of reindeer for the duration of the 8,000foot ascent into the mountains.
“It was very cold,” Carey said. “When we got to the summer camp, I was so tired that the wranglers put up my tent for me and I just got in it. The wind was amazing. It was 11 degrees at night when we were sleeping in the tent.” Still, she said, “It was so much fun.” Over the years, Carey has fostered personal relationships with members of the Dukha family. The tribe was wary of photography, SEE MIGRATION ON PAGE 3