Documentary
Majesties under the Golden Sky
Berkutchi, /ber-KOOT-chee/, the Kazakh word for an eagle hunter.
On the Mongolian Altai, a berkutchi is not only a hunter, but a keeper of wind, bloodline, and silence, bound to a golden eagle by a trust older than the written word. As modern life reaches the winter camps and rural valleys of the nomads, this inheritance must decide how much of the past can still breathe beneath the open sky.
- About The Film
- Synopsis
- Access
BACKGROUND
The film began with a family and a question: what happens when a tradition built for survival has to find a new life in the modern world? Through a renowned Kazakh eagle hunter and the son he trains for the coming Golden Eagle Festival, This film finds a story where inheritance is not explained in words, but revealed through discipline, weather, pride, and time.
NAMING
We named the film Golden Skies because every eagle in this world carries a family’s horizon. When a golden eagle rises above the steppe, it is no longer only a hunting bird. It becomes a sign of what a family has inherited, what they must protect, and how they continue to live as tradition moves into the gaze of tourists and the demands of a changing economy.
FILMING
Filming in western Mongolia meant working far beyond ordinary production conditions. The region is remote, the winter is severe, and the road to the story was rarely a road at all. Vehicles broke down. Language moved through layers of Kazakh, Mongolian, and translation. Infrastructure was scarce. To follow the family honestly, we had to earn trust locally, adjust to the land each day, and keep filming when the environment gave us no easy way forward.
PROCESS
That process became part of the film’s identity. Golden Skies was not made by observing tradition from a safe distance, but by entering its rhythm slowly enough to understand what is changing and what refuses to disappear. For L.I. Productions, the film represents the kind of documentary work we believe in: culturally specific, physically demanding, deeply researched, and carried through the hardest ground until it becomes cinema.
In the far west of Mongolia, a renowned Kazakh eagle hunter trains his son to follow the path he has mastered for a lifetime. A multiple award-winner at the Golden Eagle Festival, the father carries the authority of an older world. The son, still learning the discipline of horse, eagle, weather, and patience, prepares to compete and prove that he can inherit more than a family name.
For generations, eagle hunting was survival. In a land where winter can fall to minus 38 degrees Fahrenheit, golden eagles helped hunters catch foxes for the fur that protected their families from the cold. Today, that necessity has changed. Coats can be bought. Boots can be ordered. The eagle is no longer required in the same way.
Yet the tradition remains. Through festivals, tourism, and performance, eagle hunting has become a new form of survival, one that protects identity, livelihood, and memory. Through one family’s training for the coming Eagle Festival, the film asks a quiet question: when an ancient practice no longer survives by necessity, can it survive by meaning?
Golden Skies was shaped through rare access and meaningful support from organizations connected to the story, including National Geographic, the Mongolian government, and the Eagle Festival Association of Mongolia. Bringing these relationships together allowed us to work beyond the surface of the tradition, entering the film through trust, cultural respect, and the kind of field collaboration required to tell a story of this scale with honesty.
Creators
Director
xiaoyu yang
Cinematographer
lee c. zhang
Producer
xiaoyu yang, kah-wai lin, BATBOLD UUGANBAYAR
Camera
wendi ma
Sound
Nick rumaczyk
About the Film
The film began with a family and a question: what happens when a tradition built for survival has to find a new life in the modern world? Through a renowned Kazakh eagle hunter and the son he trains for the coming Golden Eagle Festival, This film finds a story where inheritance is not explained in words, but revealed through discipline, weather, pride, and time.
We named the film Golden Skies because every eagle in this world carries a family’s horizon. When a golden eagle rises above the steppe, it is no longer only a hunting bird. It becomes a sign of what a family has inherited, what they must protect, and how they continue to live as tradition moves into the gaze of tourists and the demands of a changing economy.
Filming in western Mongolia meant working far beyond ordinary production conditions. The region is remote, the winter is severe, and the road to the story was rarely a road at all. Vehicles broke down. Language moved through layers of Kazakh, Mongolian, and translation. Infrastructure was scarce. To follow the family honestly, we had to earn trust locally, adjust to the land each day, and keep filming when the environment gave us no easy way forward.
That process became part of the film’s identity.Golden Skies was not made by observing tradition from a safe distance, but by entering its rhythm slowly enough to understand what is changing and what refuses to disappear. For L.I. Productions, the film represents the kind of documentary work we believe in: culturally specific, physically demanding, deeply researched, and carried through the hardest ground until it becomes cinema.
Synopsis
In the far west of Mongolia, a renowned Kazakh eagle hunter trains his son to follow the path he has mastered for a lifetime. A multiple award-winner at the Golden Eagle Festival, the father carries the authority of an older world. The son, still learning the discipline of horse, eagle, weather, and patience, prepares to compete and prove that he can inherit more than a family name.
For generations, eagle hunting was survival. In a land where winter can fall to minus 38 degrees Fahrenheit, golden eagles helped hunters catch foxes for the fur that protected their families from the cold. Today, that necessity has changed. Coats can be bought. Boots can be ordered. The eagle is no longer required in the same way.
Yet the tradition remains. Through festivals, tourism, and performance, eagle hunting has become a new form of survival, one that protects identity, livelihood, and memory. Through one family’s training for the coming Eagle Festival, the film asks a quiet question: when an ancient practice no longer survives by necessity, can it survive by meaning?
Access
Golden Skies was shaped through rare access and meaningful support from organizations connected to the story, including National Geographic, the Mongolian government, and the Eagle Festival Association of Mongolia. Bringing these relationships together allowed us to work beyond the surface of the tradition, entering the film through trust, cultural respect, and the kind of field collaboration required to tell a story of this scale with honesty.
Director
xiaoyu yang
Producer
xiaoyu yang
Kah-wai lin
BATBOLD UUGANBAYAR
Cinematographer
lee c. zhang
Camera
wendi ma
Sound
Nick rumaczyk
Creators
Director
xiaoyu yang
Producer
xiaoyu yang
Kah-wai lin
BATBOLD UUGANBAYAR
Cinematographer
lee c. zhang
Camera
wendi ma
Sound
Nick rumaczyk