OUTREACH

Documentaries raise public awareness, educate, effect change, entertain and aim to emotionally connect with audiences. Audio-visual media is now recognized to be the most powerful and widely understood medium of telling stories, and films have the capacity to communicate common experiences and encourage empathy amongst a wider audience than conventional analytical tools.  A powerful documentary can lead to increased funding for research and charitable organizations. Documentaries encourage people to share awareness, lobby for change and communicate alternative solutions. 

PUBLIC SCREENINGS AND EDUCATION

All of the Rare Equine Trust films are available for educational and institutional screenings.  Please read the details of obtaining public performance rights here.  You may order educational copies of DVDs which include these rights in our store.   

A young rider and his well balanced horse compete in a daring race in Mustang. Photo: Rajan Kathet

A young rider and his well balanced horse compete in a daring race in Mustang. Photo: Rajan Kathet


The Rare Equine Trust invites educators and organizations to use the cinematic library as a resource to research, teach or effect change.   Here are some of the organizations and centers of influence we are working with for each film.

OF GODS AND KINGS 

The film is being used as a tool by the Skyros Islanders to educate Greeks and those further afield about the unique and endangered national treasure of the Skyrian Horse.  Applicable to conservation groups, historians, archeologists, ethnographers and linguists, the film is stimulating awareness and encouraging discussion of all the distinct forces which come together on this Island around this horse.  

Conservation - A windfarm threatens the last wild habitat of the horse.
Education and Therapy - Skyrian horses have unique characters ideal for working with children and the physically challenged.  How might using these horses for therapy solutions help preserve their future?
History - Are these diminutive horses the same horses on the parthenon?
Archeology - Horse bones have been discovered on the island, but have been stored without further study. What could study of these bones determine about the paleontological history of the islanders and their horses?
Archival Records - Ionnthe Bernadis is a photographer who has never left the island.  Now almost blind, his incredible collection of photographs of Island life stretches back to the 1940s.
Genetics - Is the Skyrian horse genetically unlike any other horse?  The dendogram is incomplete, and without it, so is full understanding of the Skyrian horses' place in the equine family tree. 

We propose creating an educational component to accompany the film that can be used for teaching Modern Greek and will also serve to create a version of the film with Greek subtitles.  

TARPAN

This film is a unique investigation into extinction and the changing biodiversity of Europe.  It is also a view into mankind's destructive meddling and ensuing creative mending in efforts to re-wild and re-populate abandoned farmlands in the Eastern Rhodope Mountains of Bulgaria.  

Featuring the collaborative work of two central organizations - ARK Nature in the Netherlands and New Thracian Gold in Bulgaria, the Tarpan film tells the unique story of the Modern Tarpan's part in reestablishing a biodiverse Europe.  

Conservation - From agrarian life to abandoned farms - the Eastern Rhodope are being transformed with the introduction of herbivores to complete the range of ecology closest to pre-farming history.
Genetics - Is it really possible to re-engineer a horse back from the dead?  How many species aside from this have been lost in the industrialization of Europe?
Nature - Nature needs to be much more socially and economically embedded within our society. Large, free nature areas can generate billions in income and offer many new, exciting business prospects. How do we create "authentic" nature?
Equines - How much human intervention will the Tarpan need to thrive in this new wilderness?

We propose creating an educational guide that can be used by the organizations involved to promote fundraising and awareness for ongoing support of the Modern Tarpan horses in the Eastern Rhodope.

TALKING TO THE AIR

The film is a beautiful glimpse into an equine culture that is going through rapid transformation. The film’s central theme is the spiritual connection between horse and man, but it also touches on geo-political issues between Nepal, China, and Tibet, as well as the fragility of nature and culture. 

The utter remoteness of these regions and their corresponding inaccessibility has left significant gaps in the historical record. The film illuminates rituals, traditional events and customs that center on the horse, ceremonies that are presently undocumented.

The history and domestication of the equine in these regions presents unique insights into the development of societies, and by extension, a fundamental aspect of the larger human saga.  For developing countries like Nepal—especially these “hidden” regions—the sudden influx of modernity means a flood of complex, nuanced challenges.

Engaging this film with key audiences will create renewed social awareness of the centrality of the Himalayan horse to its indigenous cultures and inspire future generations of these cultures to recognize this remarkable living treasure as an intrinsic key for the cultural preservation of their ritual heritage.  

Our hope is that this film will initiate timely dialogue regarding new “eco” economies, globalization and the future of relationships between man and his longstanding equine partner.  The film and it's engagement and outreach is imperative to the responsible stewardship of our collective historical and cultural memory in these fragile border areas.  

Potential audiences and collaborators:

  • Equine enthusiasts, wildlife conservation communities

  • Local Nepali and Tibetan cultural and community organizations

  • Religious and social historians and academics

  • Responsible tourism and mountaineering agencies, companies and organizations