Falconry Brings the Hunting Heritage to Mainstream Films

In this Information Age, the stories told on TV and in feature films can have a powerful influence on people’s attitudes and behavior—including telling the true story of who hunters are and why hunting is central to human nature.

In earlier times films such “Davy Crocket”, “Jeremiah Johnson,” “In the Blood” and “The Ghost and the Darkness” were the leading films of the day showcasing hunters as heroes. Mainstream films portraying hunters as heroes today are rare, with the exception of Jennifer Lawrence, who broke into stardom hunting squirrels in “Winter’s Bone” and then in “The Hunger Games” as the hunter-archer character “Katnis Everdeen.”

Then in 2016 a documentary film from SONY Pictures about hunting titled, “The Eagle Huntress,” was screened at the Sundance Film Festival. The audience gave it a standing ovation. Set in Mongolia, the 87-minute feature-length program follows a 13-year-old Mongolian girl, Aisholpan Nurgaiv, as she trains to become the first female in 12 generations of her family to become an eagle hunter (someone who hunts with an eagle) and then become the first girl to compete in a national eagle hunters’ contest. Since the documentary’s release, it has received rave reviews in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, NPR and Variety.

The film follows Nurgaiv’s quest, beginning with her and her father catching and training her own golden eagle, and then covering her competition against 70 men where she wins first place. Considering that golden eagles weigh up to 15 pounds and stand 3 feet tall, showcasing her physical ability to work with the eagle is a powerful story in itself. The film culminates with her eagle catching and killing a fox, which becomes part of the family’s winter clothing.

An inspiring rite-of-passage story, “The Eagle Huntress” is narrated by Daisy Ridley, the co-lead in "Star Wars: The Force Awakens." It is produced by Morgan Spurlock, who produced the fast-food expose’ “Super Size Me” and the “I Caveman” TV series. It went on to win multiple awards and grossed $3 million at the box office—truly incredible for a documentary. Available on Netflix, the film is something for the entire family.

The Place of Falconry in Hunting
Hunting requires tools. Archery equipment has been used by hunters for at least 50,000 years while the earliest known firearms date back to mid-10^th-century China. Falconry is merely hunting with a different tool.

The powerful interspecies relationship known as falconry originated in Egypt, Turkey, Kazakhastan and Mongolia and dates back to at least 3000 BC. Most people know that falconers use predator birds—hawks, falcons, eagles and owls—to catch other birds. However, the right birds also are used for catching fish, small animals and mammals as large as deer and wolves when two to three birds are used.

After Mongolia, Kazakhstan and Kirgizstan became non-Communist in the 1990s, these countries sought to revive their traditions. The annual Golden Eagle Festival is held in Olgii, located in western Mongolia, every year.

Two More Films about Falconry in Mongolia
“The Eagle Huntress” joins two other outstanding films in which Americans travel to Mongolia to learn the ancient ways of hunting with eagles.

For more than a month, he lived with his Mongolian hosts, two translators and three cameramen. They lived without electricity in small, temporary structures for shelter. In that mountainous desert region, temperatures exceed 85 degrees during the day and plunge below 25 at night. The toughest day came when five tornadic dust storms hit the crew’s camp in a single day. Brochin’s resulting documentary, the 70-minute “The Falconer, Sport of Kings,” about his training in flying eagles, took two years to complete.

The award-winning film debuted at the Keystone Art Cinema on June 26, 2013, to “a packed house,” Brochin says. Since that opening, the film has been shown in a number of film festivals all over the world. In reflection, Brochin says, “As a result of a major festival win at the Madrid International Film Festival in 2014, I became a Knight of the Portuguese Royal House and since have also became a Knight in Spain.”

“The Falconer, Sport of Kings” is available online at all major retailers and Amazon Prime, Roku, Hoopla etc. (I confess that I co-wrote the film with Brochin and my son designed his website.)

“Kiran over Mongolia” is the story of Kuma, a young Kazak man, who retraces the steps of his eagle-master grandfather to the remote mountainous region of his family's origin. There, in nomadic Mongolia, he fulfills his dream of trapping and training his own eagle. Under the tutelage of a local eagle master, Khairatkhan, Kuma learns not only the ways of hunting with eagles, but also the ways of his own people. Set against the exotic beauty of Mongolia, “Kiran” immerses the viewer in a world forgotten by time.

Described by Variety as “an engrossing walk through nature and an ancient culture,” the documentary has won awards at many film festivals. The interwoven storylines of the Kazak boy learning the ancient art of eagle hunting, while trying to figure out what to do with modern culture, are blended into a spell of enchantment that is mesmerizing on the screen. To purchase a copy, click here.