The country of Mongolia is a mystery to many Jumbos: It rarely makes headlines, instead bringing to mind visions of ancient wars involving the infamous Genghis Khan. Though it is geographically massive, many Westerners are hardly aware that the country exists.
Mongolia's mystery is precisely what drew senior Casey Beck. A peace and justice studies major, Beck is putting the finishing touches on a film, entitled "Gold and Dung," that explores the evolution of Mongolian nomadic culture and chronicles how environmental changes are forcing nomads in the country to move from livestock cultivation to dangerous and financially unstable gold-mining jobs.
"Gold and Dung" blossomed out of an interest in film that began on the Hill. Having always been interested in photography, Beck took "Producing Films for Social Change" during her sophomore year.
Her experience in the class inspired her to seek more opportunities to make film, and so she teamed up with Mapendo International, an international aid organization founded by a graduate of The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, on a project that sent her to Nairobi, Kenya, to make a short educational film about refugees in the country.
Beck returned from the trip to Kenya with meaningful field experience under her belt and began an internship for PBS's "Frontline" series. There, almost by accident, Beck found the opportunity and the resources that would make "Gold and Dung" possible.
During one of her last days of work, Beck was put into contact with Frontline World, a subset of Frontline that encourages un-established filmmakers to travel the globe and produce 20-minute documentaries. Beck already knew that she would be studying abroad in Mongolia the following semester, and Frontline World agreed to work with her on producing a film about what she might find there.
Beck then traveled across the world to become the first Tufts student in about 10 years to study abroad in the remote country, she said.
"I'm drawn to these random places," Beck said. "It was kind of whimsical, but I believe that if you do something different, it's easier to stand out a make a difference there." Beck said that because Tufts students so rarely visited the country, she was greeted with enthusiasm and interest upon her arrival.
According to Beck, beginning her film demanded a great deal of independence.
"I had this tiny little video camera and a microphone, [and I was] doing it all myself," she said.
Beck chose to make her film on a family of informal gold miners, former nomads who had lost 70 percent of their livestock in a storm a few years before Beck met them.
"Nomadic families don't have anything but their animals," she said.
Thus, the family turned to gold mining.
"Depending on where you are in the country, [gold mining] is literally something out of the 1850's", Beck said, describing the antiquated methods and hazardously light safety standards there. "They're making nine dollars a day - if they're lucky."
The film has allowed Beck to affect a kind of communication that is very important to her. "I see filmmaking as a way to connect people," she said. "For me to make a movie in Mongolia and present it here is [bringing Tufts and Mongolia] together in a way that would not be feasible otherwise."
Edited by Beck in tandem with FrontlineWorld, "Gold and Dung" should make its way onto the Frontline Web site within the next month, where it will be showcased.
"I didn't want my voice to be telling the audience what to think. I wanted to show them the way of life [in Mongolia] and have them reach their own conclusions," said Beck of the almost-finished product.
Beck's work in Mongolia has put her in touch with the subject of her next film: a college-aged Mongolian woman named Nomin who has just arrived in the United States as one of only 100 Mongolian recipients of U.S. visas. Beck is following Nomin as she studies English in the United States, exploring the woman's assimilation into and perspective on a country that many Mongolians view as being extremely important.
Beck noted that working on these films in association with Tufts has influenced the films themselves and her own evolution as a filmmaker. She explained the many attributes of Tufts' film classes but added that, because Tufts has no film department, much student film work is "self-motivated."
Beck said the lack of a film department should not deter anyone from pursuing film at Tufts.
"There are the resources," she said. "You just have to seek them out."
According to Beck, these resources often come in the form of faculty, like Ex-College associate director Howard Woolf, who became a mentor to Beck.
Beck praised the unique perspective that has resulted from studying film in such a scholarly environment.
"Because I go to Tufts, I have to pair the academic background with the artistic expression of the film," Beck said. "[Films here] are more multifaceted, and they have more layers."
In her last year of study at Tufts, Beck is looking excitedly towards the future. She is currently a finalist for the Project for Peace grant. Should she win the grant, Beck will work on a reverse-assimilation project for the residents of Kiribati, an archipelago in the South Pacific that is sinking underwater due to climate change. She hopes to create archives of photographs and video that will help those who are facing migration come to terms with the juxtaposition of their old and new lives.
Beck views the future with the same eyes that she views her individual projects. Not one to plan too far in advance, Beck appreciates the serendipity of her experiences.
"It just comes together," said Beck. "You just go, and it'll happen when you get there."
