Hybrid Documentary and Co-Creation: The Making of 'The Wolves Always Come at Night'

In 2018, Gabrielle Brady wowed the world with her poetic and meditative feature Island of the Hungry Ghosts, a portrait of forgotten asylum seekers on Christmas Island and an encompassing tribunal on man’s inhumanity. It won the award for Best Documentary Film at Tribeca Film Festival and the Human Rights Award at IDFA.

In 2024, Brady returned with a stunningly realised and intricately woven hybrid documentary, The Wolves Always Come at Night, in which she combined the art and practice of co-creation to explore the lived experiences of her collaborators.

The Wolves Always Come at Night is set in Mongolia’s immense Bayankhongor region, where herders, co-writers, and protagonists Daava (Davaasuren Dagvasuren) and Zaya (Otgonzaya Dashzeveg) are raising their four children with an intimate connection to the land and the animals they share their lives with. After a devastating storm wrought by climate change forces them from their home in the Mongolian countryside to the city, the young couple are forced to adapt to a new way of life.

Co-created with Daava and Zaya, the film seamlessly blends dramatised and documentary elements to access the profound truth of climate change on their family, their livestock and the broader Mongolian ecosystem.

Gabrielle Brady and producer Ariunaa Tserenpil are joined by moderator Anu Hasbold (At the Coalface, Australiana) for a discussion on their unique approach to non-fiction storytelling, and how co-creation led to one of the year’s most revelatory documentaries that had its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, before playing in competition at the London Film Festival.

 

Image credit: The Wolves Always Come at Night (Madman Entertainment, 2024)