"CEREMONY" Film Screening with expert commentary featuring: Sas Carey, RN & Filmmaker

The Sigur Center for Asian Studies and the Smithsonian Institution presents a screening of Sas Carey's documentary, "Ceremony."

"CEREMONY" is a documentary film about the mysterious ways of the shamans in northern Mongolia. It revolves around a specific ceremony in the steppes. Outside we see mists with reindeer emerging, smoke coming from stovepipes through the poles of a Siberian tipi or urts, as it is called, animals grazing on the steppe, and the moon in a clear sky. Inside, we experience a mysterious ritual as a master shaman slips into a trance around midnight when the stars come out. He beats the drum, chants, dances, and takes on the spirit. Many shamans interviewed before and after the event give commentaries as the ceremony progresses.

The shamans give access to this authentic ceremony only after director Sas Carey spends a portion of each of twenty years living among Mongolian nomads learning about Mongolian culture, medicine, and shamanism. Elder shamans, who comment on the ceremony, share their lineage and experience with the shaman disease and their resistance to becoming a shaman. This documentary delves into a tradition that has been passed down from the ancestors and is being passed on to the younger generation. The young apprentice Oyun Erdene has the shaman lineage and disease, but needs teaching from his powerful teacher to become a shaman. His teacher Nergui says, "People respect me because I represent the original religion of Mongolia." And, indeed, CEREMONY connects us with one of the world's first belief systems.

"CEREMONY" took Sas Carey, Director, eleven years to make. The non-profit organization Nomadicare presents this film. Nomadicare's mission is to document indigenous Mongolian culture and support nomads' health.

Light refreshments will be provided.

RSVP here.