Bringing Mongolian Culture to the World Through Film
Spotlight on a Student Academy Award winner
October marks the 45th anniversary of the Student Academy Awards. For decades, the competition has encouraged excellence in filmmaking at the collegiate level. This year’s 19 winners join the ranks of such past SAA recipients as Patricia Cardoso, Pete Docter, Cary Fukunaga and Spike Lee.
Today, meet one of our 2018 winners, Mart Bira.
Last May, Mart Bira, who lives in London with her husband and three children, set off for her native Mongolia to shoot her second film. “Nomadic Doctor” would follow a medic “who travels long, isolated distances in all types of weather by horse, camel or car to provide medical care to families in the Gobi Desert.”
The problem was that, after several conversations, the doctor she intended to feature disappeared. Bira was off to Mongolia without a subject.
But it’s precisely what she loves about documentary.
“It’s real life, real people.”
Bira continued with her plan. “I flew to Mongolia with my husband and all my equipment, but without a doctor. The day I arrived, one of my friends called me and said she found one.”
After three days of conversations with Erdenechuluun Doyod, Bira travelled to her local village and spent 10 days documenting her work, which ranges from pediatrics to surgery. Erdenechuluun is the director of a local health center in the Dundgovi province.
The result ended up earning Bira a Student Academy Award in the Documentary category for international film schools.
She is the first Mongolian winner in the competition’s history.
When she received the call, she was shocked. “I was doing my weekly grocery shopping and I didn’t believe what I heard. I just kept asking, ‘Sorry, say that again? Really?’ I was thrilled with the wonderful news. It was such a nice feeling.”
“I felt so honored” to be the first Mongolian winner, she said. “It’s wonderful. Still, I can’t believe it.”
Bira hopes the award will allow her to work with many wonderful and talented filmmakers down the road. But right now, “I just want to represent my country,” she said.
“I always had a burning ambition to introduce Mongolian culture to the world.”
“I am passionate about revealing and documenting beautiful Mongolian nature and the culture of nomadic people,” she added.
The specific story of a nomadic doctor came to her after conversations with her sister, who used to be a local medic who rode horses to treat remote patients in time.
Bira remains in touch with her subject, whom she visited this past summer.
“I was truly inspired by her work. She dedicated herself to the people and the culture and her work. She’s wonderful.”
As a child, Bira wanted to become an actor. She later attended the National University of Mongolia, where she studied history. At that time, during the transition to democracy in 1990, “my country was not stable,” she said. “That made me want to raise my voice, and that’s why I chose to go to TV school.”
While working at the Mongolian National Broadcaster afterwards, Bira directed her first short documentary. Now in her tenth year living in London, Bira has completed her Masters in Film and TV Production at the University of Hertfordshire — and her three daughters, ages 26, 22 and 16, couldn’t be more supportive.
Bira’s next documentary, a feature, will continue to show the world unseen parts of Mongolia. It will follow “an incredible man who inherited a lost tradition, training his horses for the national grand horse racing competition.”
While taking it film by film, Bira is certain of one thing: “I want to make documentaries. I’m always attracted to stories about truth-seeking.”
“Life is true. It’s completely down to earth.”
The 45th Student Academy Awards ceremony will take place on Thursday, October 11, at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.
