The Gobi Gallop

digital, 71 min, 2018

The Gobi Gallop is an annual 10 day, 700 kilometer, horseback trek in Mongolia with participants from around the world coming together to ride and raise money for The Children of the Peak, a kindergarten located in the Ger district of the capital city, Ulaanbaatar. The kindergarten was built to alleviate the harsh reality of disadvantaged children who otherwise would be scavenging on the garbage dump nearby. The opportunity to make a film of the ride in Mongolia was presented to me by Julie Veloo from the Veloo Foundation after a mutual friend shared with her my name and expertise.

As a first-time filmmaker, and someone who was fortunate enough to travel to Mongolia to film this extraordinary ride, I wanted to make sure the story stayed true to the actual events as they unfolded. For this reason, The Gobi Gallop falls within the style of participatory documentaries with a large emphasis on observational filmmaking. The majority of the footage was taken as an observer. An observer of the kindergarten, the ride, and the gala (the event that concludes the ride). To further this, the narration was created from the voices of the participants to hear what they themselves were experiencing, feeling, and thinking.

Spending three weeks in Mongolia and sharing the experience of the Gobi Gallop with the riders, guides, and crew, I witnessed the significance of this event in raising funds for the kindergarten. For the film, I wanted to share with the audience the true weight of this ride in addition to an insight into the picturesque Mongolian landscape and resilient Mongolian culture.

This film would not have been possible without the kindness, strength, and welcoming of the Mongolian guides and crew, the international riders, the composer of the original score, Jacob Veloo, and the founder of the Gobi Gallop, Julie Veloo.

Watch: https://filmfestivalflix.com/festival/equus/film/the-gobi-gallop-a-documentary/

Film Festivals:

EQUUS Film Festival 2018

EQUUS International Film Festival 2019

Awards:

Winnie Award 2019

Most inspirational international feature documentary, EQUUS Film Festival

Best Film for a Cause, EQQUS International Film Festival

Media:

http://www.veloofoundation.com/gobi-gallop-the-movie.html

https://www.equineinfoexchange.com/index.php/travel-tourism/653-the-gobi-gallop

http://www.equusfilmfestival.net/top-10-horse-movies-to-watch-during-quarantine.html