BEAUTIFUL NEW STORIES ABOUT BEAUTIFUL PLACES & TIMES AT SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL 2016.

Beautiful new stories about exceptional places and times are featured in this BN team curated collection of films featured at Sundance Festival 2016. Check them out below.

THE EAGLE HUNTRESS

We are thrilled to learn that girl power lives in western Mongolia! The Eagle Huntress, a new film by director, Otto Bell, tells the story of Aisholpan, 13-year-old eagle huntress, who is carrying out the Kazakh tribe’s 2,000 year old tradition of hunting with golden eagles.

Until now, only men have hunted with these majestic birds, whose wingspans can reach up to 7.5 feet wide. But it is now Aisholpan’s passion. Her open-minded father and grandfather support her in her mission, training her to compete against 70 men in the annual hunting competition.

Bell was originally inspired by the magnificent photographs of Asher Svidensky. He aimed to bring those images to life, with breathtaking cinematography, intimate footage, and fascinating look at breaking down gender barriers in a place few of us know much about. The Eagle Huntress is a winner. Hands down. It’s a must see. 

ALI & NINO

A teenage love story, set in Azerbaijan, just before World War I erupted, Ali & Nino is a film about the complication and heartbreak of cultural rifts.

He is Muslim and she is Christian. They each have one foot in the traditional world and one in the modern. The clashes that ensue are exacerbated when war breaks out.

Award-winning director Asif Kapadia works with both documentary and fiction filmmaking styles to create an epic, politically charged film. 

RAMS

Iceland has some of the most beautiful landscapes on the planet. Rough and wild, remote and full of intrigue, this country is a place that, in many ways, operates on a different time frame and set of priorities.

Rams, an award-winning new film by director Grímur Hákonarson, takes a look at the story of two feuding brothers who manage a herd of sheep in an Icelandic farming valley. When their herd becomes victim of scrapie, a devastating contagious and fatal illness, they must grapple with difficult decisions about how to deal with it, when none of their options seem good.

Which will win out, their traditional way of life or new ideas in livestock and land management? It is a film will deliver incredible beauty as you find out.

See the trailer here.

DOUBLE CONSCIENCE

Double Conscience, a new film installation by lead artist Kahlil Joseph, with Kendrick Lamar, is a bittersweet portrait of contemporary Compton, California, set to a Lamar’s booming soundtrack.

Reality and fantasy, creativity and sadness, all swirl around and move to the beat as they flash across two screens in this unique showcase at the Sundance New Frontier.

Read more about Beautiful Storytelling, as it relates to Arts/Design, Nature/Science, Food/Drink, Place/Time, Mind/Body, and Soul/Impact including New Beautiful Stories Unfold at Sundance Festival 2016, New Nature, Science, & Tech Stories Unfold at Sundance 2016, Beautiful Food Stories Are Being Told Now and The Art of Storytelling: Beautiful Films at Sundance Festival 2016.

Want more stories like this? Sign up for our weekly BN Newsletter, Like us on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr. Join our BeautifulNow Community and connect with the most beautiful things happening in the world right now!

Do you have amazing photos? Enter them in this week’s BN Photo Competition. We run new creative competitions every week! Now, it’s even easier to enter with the new BeautifulNow App!

Plus check out the rest of our App’s beautiful features. It’s free to download here.

IMAGE CREDITS:

1. Image: by Asher Svidensky. The Eagle Huntress.
2. Image: by Asher Svidensky. The Eagle Huntress.
3. Image: by Asher Svidensky. The Eagle Huntress.
4. Image: by Asher Svidensky. The Eagle Huntress.
5. Image: Courtesy of Freud Communications. Ali & Nino.
6. Image: Courtesy of Cohen Media Group. Rams.
7. Image: Courtesy of Cohen Media Group. Rams.
8. Image: Courtesy of Double Conscience.
9. Image: Courtesy of Savage Film. The Land of the Enlightened.
10. Image: Courtesy of Sundance Film Festival.
11. Image: by BN App - Download now!
12. Image: Courtesy of Sundance Film Festival.