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The Eagle Huntress

The Eagle Huntress

Some traditions die hard.

When a 13-year-old Western Mongolian girl (Aisholpan) challenges the status quo by insisting she be the first female to compete in a 2,000-year-old males-only contest, she will tolerate no compromises.

Adults can’t comprehend why this shy, tomboyish creature would want to become a huntress and use her skills to compete in an ancient national sport that depends on the training of eagles. Surely she’ll fail, they argue; surely she’ll lack the necessary stamina.

If “The Eagle Huntress” sounds familiar, that’s because the outline of a modern feminist epic is always there in the background. What’s surprising is how fresh and charming the movie manages to be.

The girl and her father could have dropped in from a 1950s Disney nature documentary, yet this is never a by-the-numbers effort. The rock-climbing and fox-hunting scenes are as suspenseful as the preparations for the eagle competition — which is never a foregone conclusion.

“The Eagle Huntress” recently won the documentary prize at the Hamptons International Film Festival. Special notice should be made of Simon Niblett’s expressive cinematography, which is more than pretty, chilly landscapes. When the narrator tells us that the temperature is many degrees below zero, we can feel it in our bones.

— John Hartl, The Seattle Times

The Eagle Huntress

Fri February 3, 2017, 7:30 PM, Muenzinger Auditorium

UK, 2016, in Kazakh with English Subtitles, Color, 87 min, 1.85 : 1 • official site

recommend

Tickets

10 films for $60 with punch card
$9 general admission. $7 w/UCB student ID, $7 for senior citizens
$1 discount to anyone with a bike helmet
Free on your birthday! CU Cinema Studies students get in free.

Parking

Pay lot 360 (now only $1/hour!), across from the buffalo statue and next to the Duane Physics tower, is closest to Muenzinger. Free parking can be found after 5pm at the meters along Colorado Ave east of Folsom stadium and along University Ave west of Macky.

RTD Bus

Park elsewhere and catch the HOP to campus

International Film Series

(Originally called The University Film Commission)
Established 1941 by James Sandoe.

First Person Cinema

(Originally called The Experimental Cinema Group)
Established 1955 by Carla Selby, Gladney Oakley, Bruce Conner and Stan Brakhage.

C.U. Film Program

(AKA The Rocky Mountain Film Center)
First offered degrees in filmmaking and critical studies in 1989 under the guidance of Virgil Grillo.

Celebrating Stan

Created by Suranjan Ganguly in 2003.

C.U. Department of Cinema Studies & Moving Image Arts

Established 2017 by Chair Ernesto Acevedo-Muñoz.

Thank you, sponsors!
Boulder International Film Festival
Department of Cinema Studies & Moving Image Arts

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