MIDDLEBURY — For 24 years, Sas Carey has been traveling to Mongolia nearly every summer, learning about Mongolian culture — from riding horses to shamanic practices. Carey has documented these travels with a series of documentaries, and this summer she is remaining home, ready to share with her experiences.  
To give locals the opportunity to travel and also stay in Middlebury, Carey will be screening her documentary films, showing the progression of her films  and work  from her first trip to Mongolia 1994 to her most recent award-winning film released in 2016. Carey will host the series and be available for informal discussions about her experiences.
Carey will show the first installment of her films on Wednesday, June 21. “Mongolian Festival” (1994), documents her first impressions of Mongolia at a tourist festival, where she climbed on her first Mongolian horse and watched some traditional Mongolian dances. In “Steppe Herbs, Mare’s Milk and Jelly Jars: A Journey to Mongolian Medicine” Carey shares her experience as one of the first two Westerners to be taught traditional Mongolian medicine.
The series continues on Thursday, July 6, with “Gobi Women’s Song:  Nomadic women share the song of their soul,” Carey’s 2006 chronicle of working with United Nations Development Program. Carey will discuss her experience and what inspired her to make the film.
Carey’s exploration of northern Mongolian shamanic traditions will be the subject of three films shown on Wednesday, July 19. In “Ceremony: A Journey Among the Shamans of northern Mongolia,” its precursor “Shamans Among the Dukhas”  and the 2007 work “Taiga Heart Song” Carey documents her travels from the Gobi Desert to the taiga bordering Siberia. On this journey, Carey combined health care with documenting the lives of reindeer herders and shamans.
The final two films of the series, on screen Thursday, August 3, include her 2016 award-winning documentary “Migration” and  “Dukhas Moving,” its precursor.
Through donations given at the film showings, Carey intends to raise awareness and funds for Nomadicare, an organization out of Cambridge Ma., that supports healthcare workers who provide healthcare as they travel around the world. Nomadicare’s mission in Mongolia is to preserve and deepen understanding of traditional Mongolian nomadic culture. The suggested donation per evening is $10.
The series will take place at 7 p.m. in the gazebo behind 248 Washington St. Ext. Carey invites attendees to bring a chair and a picnic. Parking is available at the animal hospital or Co-operative Fire Insurance. For further information contact Carey at [email protected] or 802-388-1301.