World Nomads Film Festival

Mongolia Festival Program & Schedule

The World Nomads Ethnographic Film Festival will be held at the “Nomads” World Culture Festival, August 21–23, 2026. Hosted by the Commission on Nomadic Peoples and the International Institute for the Study of Nomadic Civilizations under the Auspices of UNESCO.


Day 1: Friday, August 21, 2026

Opening Day Filmmaker Presentations | 12:00 PM – 7:00 PM

Block 1: Pastoralism in Film ⏱️ 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM

Opening 75-minute screening presentation featuring climate change, water harvesting, Maasai youth, and Rajasthan Raika camel herders, followed by a joint filmmaker panel discussion.

Pastoralism is the future
Pastoralism is the future
⏱️ 2 min 🌍 Global 🎬 CELEP & VSF International 👥 Global Mobile Pastoralists

Man-made climate change is creating conditions on our planet that are increasingly characterised by variability and unpredictability.

Climate change and pastoralism
Climate change and pastoralism
⏱️ 4 min 🌍 Global 🎬 Saverio Krätli & IIED 👥 Global Dryland Pastoralists

Part of the MOOC course material for Pastoralism in Development created by IIED, MISEREOR, and Saverio Krätli.

Catching Raindrops in Africa
Catching Raindrops in Africa
⏱️ 5 min 🌍 Sweden / Sub-Saharan Africa 🎬 Radhika Gupta 👥 Sub-Saharan Rainfed Pastoralists/Farmers

Produced for the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), this short documentary showcases smallholder farmers and pastoralists as frontline water managers in Africa, advocating for investments in rainfed agriculture and soil moisture conservation.

Maasai Voices on Climate Change (and other changes, too)
Maasai Voices on Climate Change (and other changes, too)
⏱️ 10 min 🌍 Kenya 🎬 Joana Roque de Pinho & Maasai Youth Filmmakers 👥 Maasai

A 10-minute participatory documentary made by a freshly trained-in-filmmaking group of young Kenyan Maasai women and men from the Maasai Mara, sharing their firsthand observations on climate change, changing seasons, land privatization, and cultural transformation.

The Kumbhalgarh Raika Story
The Kumbhalgarh Raika Story
⏱️ 12 min 🌍 India 🎬 LPPS & Hanwant Singh Rathore 👥 Raika

Highlights the struggle of the Raika camel herders of Rajasthan, India, as they advocate for grazing access rights within the Kumbhalgarh Wildlife Sanctuary, demonstrating their role as stewards of forest biodiversity.

Preserving Rajasthan's camel herds
Preserving Rajasthan's camel herds
⏱️ 5 min 🌍 India 🎬 LPPS & Camel Charisma 👥 Raika

Features community-led initiatives in Rajasthan to create sustainable livelihoods from camel milk and camel wool products, aiming to save endangered camel herds and preserve the traditional Raika way of life.

Shepherds of the Deccan
Shepherds of the Deccan
⏱️ 14 min 🌍 India 🎬 Ankit Pogula / LPPS 👥 Dhangar / Kurba Shepherds

For hundreds of years, the Dhangar nomads have kept sheep on the Deccan Plateau in Maharashtra State, India.

Changing a Landscape to a Lifescape: the Humboldt Ranch
Changing a Landscape to a Lifescape: the Humboldt Ranch
⏱️ 12 min 🌍 USA 🎬 Abbey Kinion 👥 Nevada Rangeland Ranchers

In northeastern Nevada, the Humboldt Ranch is transforming more than 350,000 acres of public and private rangelands through innovative grazing practices.

👥 Filmmaker Panel Discussion ⏱️ 20 mins

Panel Discussion: Pastoralism, Media, and Climate Action

Featured Filmmakers & Panelists:
  • Saverio Krätli (Climate change and pastoralism)
  • Radhika Gupta (Catching Raindrops in Africa)
  • Joana Roque de Pinho (Maasai Voices on Climate Change)

An interactive joint panel discussion with presenting filmmakers Saverio Krätli, Radhika Gupta, and Joana Roque de Pinho, moderated by the festival host. The panel explores frontline climate adaptation, rainwater harvesting, Indigenous youth filmmaking, and policy advocacy across African and global drylands.

Block 2: Social and Environmental Change ⏱️ 1:45 PM – 3:50 PM

Focusing on Indigenous environmental justice in Mongolia, Saharan salt trade caravans, and Slovenian youth transhumance, featuring live filmmaker Q&A discussions.

Losing Ground: Documentary Cinema, Pastoral Knowledge, and Environmental Justice in Mongolia
Losing Ground: Documentary Cinema, Pastoral Knowledge, and Environmental Justice in Mongolia
⏱️ 30 min 🌍 Mongolia 🎬 Bradley Rappa 👥 Mongol Herders

An ethnographic documentary examining how climate change, overgrazing, and destructive mining practices threaten Mongolian nomadic herders.

🎙️ Filmmaker Q&A
Presenting Filmmaker: Bradley Rappa (15 mins)
Discussion following Losing Ground: Documentary Cinema, Pastoral Knowledge, and Environmental Justice in Mongolia

Commitment (Zaveza)
Commitment (Zaveza)
⏱️ 16 min 🌍 Slovenia 🎬 Tajda Jerkič & Anja Poznič 👥 Slovenian Alpine Goat Herders

A student workshop documentary about a Slovenian urban family who moved to the countryside to dedicate themselves to goat herding, capturing their daily commitment, hard manual labor, and family bond.

Tarlamt: Salt Caravan to Bilma
Tarlamt: Salt Caravan to Bilma
⏱️ 42 min 🌍 Niger 🎬 Sarah Lunacek 👥 Tuareg (Kel Eway)

Filmed in 2000 with lightweight equipment in harsh desert conditions, this documentary follows a Tuareg (Kel Eway Imjaghan) camel caravan traveling across the Sahara to Bilma, documenting traditional trade routes, desert survival, and social organization.

🎙️ Filmmaker Q&A
Presenting Filmmaker: Sarah Lunacek (15 mins)
Discussion following Tarlamt: Salt Caravan to Bilma

Block 3: Subarctic Tundra & Boarding School Transitions ⏱️ 4:00 PM – 5:05 PM

An intimate examination of Arctic nomadic childhood and tundra youth preparing for remote boarding school.

Wind has no tail
Wind has no tail
⏱️ 60 min 🌍 Russia 🎬 Ivan Vlasov & Nikita Stashkevich 👥 Nenets

Filmed in the Arctic tundra of the Yamal Peninsula, Russia (produced in 2024), this intimate documentary follows Nika, a young Nenets girl living with her nomadic reindeer herding family as she prepares to leave her tundra home for a remote boarding school.

Block 4: Alpine Transhumance & High Mountain Herding ⏱️ 5:15 PM – 6:55 PM

Our Day 1 closing feature follows young Macedonian brothers battling loneliness and harsh terrain to sustain transhumance traditions.

The Mountain Won't Move (Gora ne premakne se)
The Mountain Won't Move (Gora ne premakne se)
⏱️ 94 min 🌍 North Macedonia / Slovenia 🎬 Petra Seliškar 👥 Macedonian Mountain Shepherds

A feature-length documentary produced in 2025 following young brothers herding sheep in the rugged mountains of North Macedonia, delving into family relationships, loneliness, and the struggle to sustain high-altitude transhumance.


Day 2: Saturday, August 22, 2026

Rotational Program & IYRP Roundtable | 10:00 AM – 7:00 PM

Block 5: Steppe Herders & Asian Pastoral Traditions ⏱️ 10:00 AM – 11:20 AM

Exploring Mongolian river basin herders and Southern Indian sheep pastoralists.

Tes River Mongolians
Tes River Mongolians
⏱️ 58 min 🌍 Mongolia 🎬 Joseph L. Subbiondo / Asian Cultural Council 👥 Mongol Herders

The Tes River flows from the Bulnai Mountains through three Mongolian provinces – Khuvsgul, Zavkhan and Uvs – feeds into Lake Uvs, registered by UNESCO in 2013 as a Natural World Heritage site.

Shepherds of the Deccan
Shepherds of the Deccan
⏱️ 14 min 🌍 India 🎬 Ankit Pogula / LPPS 👥 Dhangar / Kurba Shepherds

For hundreds of years, the Dhangar nomads have kept sheep on the Deccan Plateau in Maharashtra State, India.

Living in the Mountains of Ladakh
Living in the Mountains of Ladakh
⏱️ 3 min 🌍 India 🎬 Stanzin Dorjai Gya 👥 Changpa (Ladakh)

In this film, a nomadic woman shares her daily life in Ladakh’s high mountains.

Block 6: Pastoral Knowledge & Ecological Stewardship ⏱️ 11:30 AM – 12:50 PM

Documenting traditional ecological knowledge, rangeland biodiversity, and sustainable savanna livestock systems.

Bayandalai: Lord of the Taiga
Bayandalai: Lord of the Taiga
⏱️ 11 min 🌍 Mongolia 🎬 Aner Etxebarria Moral & Pablo Vidal Santos 👥 Dukha (Tsaatan Reindeer Herders)

From inside his yurt in northern Mongolia, the reindeer herder Bayandalai ‒ an elder of the Dukhas tribe ‒ muses about the significance of life and death in the largest forest on Earth, the Taiga.

An afternoon on the pasture
An afternoon on the pasture
⏱️ 22 min 🌍 Hungary 🎬 Zsolt Molnár & Sándor Karácsony 👥 Hungarian Puszta Herders

László Sáfián – born into a Hungarian family that has been herding for generations – explains how he, with his dog, manages close-herded grazing on a patchy semi-natural pasture.

Guardians of the grasslands
Guardians of the grasslands
⏱️ 13 min 🌍 Canada 🎬 Sarah Wray & Ben Wilson / CRSB 👥 Canadian Prairie Ranchers

Canada’s native grasslands are disappearing at an alarming rate; they are one of the most endangered ecosystems in the world.

Cowherds of the Savannah
Cowherds of the Savannah
⏱️ 26 min 🌍 Uganda 🎬 Mark Michel & Neue Celluloid Fabrik 👥 Karamojong

The Karamojong are herdsmen in the North-East of Uganda and guardians of their landscape.

Pastoralism is the future
Pastoralism is the future
⏱️ 2 min 🌍 Global 🎬 CELEP & VSF International 👥 Global Mobile Pastoralists

Man-made climate change is creating conditions on our planet that are increasingly characterised by variability and unpredictability.

🏛️ Special Event & Roundtable ⏱️ 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM

Commission for Nomadic Peoples Roundtable

Topic: Themes from the International Year for Rangelands and Pastoralists
Organized by the Commission for Nomadic Peoples (CNP) in collaboration with IYRP 2026. This two-hour interdisciplinary roundtable brings together pastoralist leaders, ethnographic filmmakers, and rangeland scientists to address policy frameworks, land tenure rights, and climate adaptation strategies.

Block 7: Youth and Intergenerational Knowledge ⏱️ 3:00 PM – 4:35 PM

Following Afar girls in Ethiopia, Maasai youth returning home, Nama community conservancies, and Irish transhumance.

Fatuma and Assya – Two Afar Girls in Ethiopia
Fatuma and Assya – Two Afar Girls in Ethiopia
⏱️ 20 min 🌍 Ethiopia 🎬 Francesco Sincich 👥 Afar

This film tells the story of two girls in Afar, northeast Ethiopia, and how they face challenges in their young lives: Fatuma seeking to avoid the traditional arranged marriage and Asya trying to deal with livestock theft and conflict with the Somali Issa.

Enchukunoto (The Return)
Enchukunoto (The Return)
⏱️ 16 min 🌍 Kenya 🎬 Laissa Malih 👥 Maasai

In this intimate and groundbreaking film, Laissa Malih, the first female Maasai filmmaker, returns to her ancestral village in Laikipia to explore how climate change is transforming Maasai lands and lives.

Conservation and Traditional Survival
Conservation and Traditional Survival
⏱️ 22 min 🌍 South Africa 🎬 Humair Hayat 👥 Nama

After several years of negotiations with the South African National Parks Board, the local Nama people were allowed to remain living and grazing their livestock in a designated nature conservation area – the Richtersveld World Heritage Site in Northern Cape Province bordering Namibia.

Stories from the landscape: cattle drove
Stories from the landscape: cattle drove
⏱️ 30 min 🌍 Ireland 🎬 Christopher O'Donnell 👥 Irish Cattle Drovers

This film shows the living cultural heritage of transhumance in Europe: moving livestock to different grazing grounds in a seasonal cycle that goes back as long as people have been farming in the region.

Block 8: Andean Highlands & Rangeland Restoration ⏱️ 4:45 PM – 6:05 PM

Vicuña conservation in Bolivia, Nevada ranch restoration, Italian wolf co-existence, and Spanish transhumance.

The Custodians of the Andean Gold
The Custodians of the Andean Gold
⏱️ 32 min 🌍 Bolivia 🎬 Bibiana Vilá & CONICET 👥 Andean Llama/Vicuña Herders

In the high Andes of Peru and Bolivia, Quechua and Aymara families depend on alpacas and vicuñas for their livelihoods, selling the animals’ prized fiber.

Changing a Landscape to a Lifescape: the Humboldt Ranch
Changing a Landscape to a Lifescape: the Humboldt Ranch
⏱️ 12 min 🌍 USA 🎬 Abbey Kinion 👥 Nevada Rangeland Ranchers

In northeastern Nevada, the Humboldt Ranch is transforming more than 350,000 acres of public and private rangelands through innovative grazing practices.

Days of the Wolf
Days of the Wolf
⏱️ 17 min 🌍 Italy 🎬 Dario Novellino 👥 Apennine Shepherds

In Italy’s Apennine Mountains, large carnivores are creating problems for herders.

Sharing the Land
Sharing the Land
⏱️ 14 min 🌍 Spain 🎬 Juan Manuel Rivas & Alfonso Kike 👥 Spanish Transhumance Herders

This documentary brings the testimonies of three herders – Fernando, Juan and Sofía – who have learnt to live close to wolves.


Day 3: Sunday, August 23, 2026

Rotational Feature Showcase & Festival Closing | 10:00 AM – 7:00 PM

Block 9: Environmental Justice ⏱️ 10:00 AM – 11:50 AM

Re-visiting environmental justice in Mongolia, Nenets reindeer herding, and Slovenian youth transhumance.

Losing Ground: Documentary Cinema, Pastoral Knowledge, and Environmental Justice in Mongolia
Losing Ground: Documentary Cinema, Pastoral Knowledge, and Environmental Justice in Mongolia
⏱️ 30 min 🌍 Mongolia 🎬 Bradley Rappa 👥 Mongol Herders

An ethnographic documentary examining how climate change, overgrazing, and destructive mining practices threaten Mongolian nomadic herders.

Wind has no tail
Wind has no tail
⏱️ 60 min 🌍 Russia 🎬 Ivan Vlasov & Nikita Stashkevich 👥 Nenets

Filmed in the Arctic tundra of the Yamal Peninsula, Russia (produced in 2024), this intimate documentary follows Nika, a young Nenets girl living with her nomadic reindeer herding family as she prepares to leave her tundra home for a remote boarding school.

Commitment (Zaveza)
Commitment (Zaveza)
⏱️ 16 min 🌍 Slovenia 🎬 Tajda Jerkič & Anja Poznič 👥 Slovenian Alpine Goat Herders

A student workshop documentary about a Slovenian urban family who moved to the countryside to dedicate themselves to goat herding, capturing their daily commitment, hard manual labor, and family bond.

Block 10: Saharan Caravans & Desert Stewardship ⏱️ 12:00 PM – 1:15 PM

Ancient trade routes across the Sahara and desert camel herd preservation in Rajasthan.

Tarlamt: Salt Caravan to Bilma
Tarlamt: Salt Caravan to Bilma
⏱️ 42 min 🌍 Niger 🎬 Sarah Lunacek 👥 Tuareg (Kel Eway)

Filmed in 2000 with lightweight equipment in harsh desert conditions, this documentary follows a Tuareg (Kel Eway Imjaghan) camel caravan traveling across the Sahara to Bilma, documenting traditional trade routes, desert survival, and social organization.

Maasai Voices on Climate Change (and other changes, too)
Maasai Voices on Climate Change (and other changes, too)
⏱️ 10 min 🌍 Kenya 🎬 Joana Roque de Pinho & Maasai Youth Filmmakers 👥 Maasai

A 10-minute participatory documentary made by a freshly trained-in-filmmaking group of young Kenyan Maasai women and men from the Maasai Mara, sharing their firsthand observations on climate change, changing seasons, land privatization, and cultural transformation.

Preserving Rajasthan's camel herds
Preserving Rajasthan's camel herds
⏱️ 5 min 🌍 India 🎬 LPPS & Camel Charisma 👥 Raika

Features community-led initiatives in Rajasthan to create sustainable livelihoods from camel milk and camel wool products, aiming to save endangered camel herds and preserve the traditional Raika way of life.

The Kumbhalgarh Raika Story
The Kumbhalgarh Raika Story
⏱️ 12 min 🌍 India 🎬 LPPS & Hanwant Singh Rathore 👥 Raika

Highlights the struggle of the Raika camel herders of Rajasthan, India, as they advocate for grazing access rights within the Kumbhalgarh Wildlife Sanctuary, demonstrating their role as stewards of forest biodiversity.

Block 11: Climate Perspectives ⏱️ 1:30 PM – 2:55 PM

Re-examining Mongolian steppe mobility, rainfed water harvesting, and Taiga elder reflections.

Tes River Mongolians
Tes River Mongolians
⏱️ 58 min 🌍 Mongolia 🎬 Joseph L. Subbiondo / Asian Cultural Council 👥 Mongol Herders

The Tes River flows from the Bulnai Mountains through three Mongolian provinces – Khuvsgul, Zavkhan and Uvs – feeds into Lake Uvs, registered by UNESCO in 2013 as a Natural World Heritage site.

Climate change and pastoralism
Climate change and pastoralism
⏱️ 4 min 🌍 Global 🎬 Saverio Krätli & IIED 👥 Global Dryland Pastoralists

Part of the MOOC course material for Pastoralism in Development created by IIED, MISEREOR, and Saverio Krätli.

Catching Raindrops in Africa
Catching Raindrops in Africa
⏱️ 5 min 🌍 Sweden / Sub-Saharan Africa 🎬 Radhika Gupta 👥 Sub-Saharan Rainfed Pastoralists/Farmers

Produced for the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), this short documentary showcases smallholder farmers and pastoralists as frontline water managers in Africa, advocating for investments in rainfed agriculture and soil moisture conservation.

Bayandalai: Lord of the Taiga
Bayandalai: Lord of the Taiga
⏱️ 11 min 🌍 Mongolia 🎬 Aner Etxebarria Moral & Pablo Vidal Santos 👥 Dukha (Tsaatan Reindeer Herders)

From inside his yurt in northern Mongolia, the reindeer herder Bayandalai ‒ an elder of the Dukhas tribe ‒ muses about the significance of life and death in the largest forest on Earth, the Taiga.

Block 12: Alpine Transhumance & Closing Ceremony ⏱️ 3:15 PM – 6:00 PM

Festival closing screening featuring Macedonian sheep transhumance, Hungarian pasture management, and Bolivian vicuña stewardship.

The Mountain Won't Move (Gora ne premakne se)
The Mountain Won't Move (Gora ne premakne se)
⏱️ 94 min 🌍 North Macedonia / Slovenia 🎬 Petra Seliškar 👥 Macedonian Mountain Shepherds

A feature-length documentary produced in 2025 following young brothers herding sheep in the rugged mountains of North Macedonia, delving into family relationships, loneliness, and the struggle to sustain high-altitude transhumance.

An afternoon on the pasture
An afternoon on the pasture
⏱️ 22 min 🌍 Hungary 🎬 Zsolt Molnár & Sándor Karácsony 👥 Hungarian Puszta Herders

László Sáfián – born into a Hungarian family that has been herding for generations – explains how he, with his dog, manages close-herded grazing on a patchy semi-natural pasture.

The Custodians of the Andean Gold
The Custodians of the Andean Gold
⏱️ 32 min 🌍 Bolivia 🎬 Bibiana Vilá & CONICET 👥 Andean Llama/Vicuña Herders

In the high Andes of Peru and Bolivia, Quechua and Aymara families depend on alpacas and vicuñas for their livelihoods, selling the animals’ prized fiber.