Arctic Expedition
An expedition to the high Arctic, to Svalbard, the archipelago north of Norway, to say goodbye to polar bears. This short, entertaining film captures stunning images of polar bears and Arctic wildlife for a campaign to stop global warming. The narration evolves in 6 segments: preparations for the expedition, encounters with polar bears, walrus, ice and glaciers, Arctic birds, and humpback whales. Appropriate for all ages.
Filmed and Produced by Gail Osherenko. Runtime 16 min
Pegtymel
The film depicts Chukchi reindeer herders everyday life on the Pegtymel River, on the coast of the Chukchi Sea in the northeast part of Russia. Daily life and the autumn ritual are intersected with fly agaric mushroom stories told by old man Natalko and rock art images painted a thousand years ago on the Pegtymel cliffs. The camera traces the vivid dialogue of ancient and current traditions, beliefs and rituals, humans and nature; these are impressively abundant and picturesque in Chukchi traditional culture today.
"Pegtymel is a visual poem on the summer life of a reindeer-breeding Chukchi group. With stunning sensitivity and ethnographic intelligence the author photographs mostly camp activities. Against this background unfolds a tale of visions induced by the hallucinogenic fly agaric, mirrored also in old petroglyphs. Assembled together in a coherent mosaic structure, the visual materials give the impression of a cultural whole, of a global cultural form. A rare achievement indeed."
- Asen Balikci, Anthropology Today
Filmed and Produced by Andrei Golovnev. Runtime 32 min (in English)
Way to the Sacred Place
The filmmaker traces events of his own travel in 1996 to the famous Yamal sanctuary, The Seven Tents, at the northern tip of the Yamal Peninsula in northwestern Siberia. The film depicts Nenets nomadic reindeer herders' lives, myths, and rituals. Playing by chance a role of pilgrim, the ethnographer encountered many extraordinary and esoteric things. The figure of the patron-spirit "mistress of the tent" , image of the Goddess of Yamal, people (including the author) and reindeer participating in sacrifices and purifications - all of these happened along one and the same road, the sacred path to the Seven Tents. Historically, that was the way by which the Nenets' ancestors came to the northern coastal tundra called Yamal (End of the Land).
• Winner of the First Annual Russian Anthropological Film Festival, Salekhard, Russia, 1998
Filmed and Produced by Andrei Golovnev. Original in Russian, 1997. Runtime 47 minutes - in English
Post-Horse
Seven-year old Lekha lives in a remote Russian Pomor village on the Onega Coast of White Sea. He learns a thing or two, accompanies his parents in driving a post-horse and rhymes songs about his tough life.
Prizes
• Diploma "For poetic image of childish soul" at the 1st International Ecological Film Festival "Zolotoy Bytayz" (Lipetzk, Russia)
• Audience award "Small Silver Nanook" at the 9th International Documentary Film
Participant of
- The 19th International "Message To Man" Film Festival
- The 6th Open Russian Anthropological Film Festival
- The 20th Open Documentary Film Festival "Russia" (Ekaterinburg, Russia)
Filmed and Produced by Andrei Golovnev. Original in Russian, 2008. Runtime 36 minutes