The Last Moose of Aoluguya
Gu Tao
Release year: 2013
Run time: 99 mins
Film type: Documentary
Synopsis
The moose is the largest animal of the Greater Xing’an mountains. Mighty, sensitive, and majestic, he has been hunted and his home has been destroyed, and now it is rare that people can catch a glimpse of him in the great forests of northeastern China.
But this is not a film about an animal…
Ewenki hunter Weijia's life has followed the trajectory of the moose, with his lands taken away, his hunting guns confiscated, and his way of life falling into extinction; he spends his days drinking and painting his memories of a better time. In the spring, Weijia and Maoxie go into the forest in search of moose. Then one day, Weijia's life undergoes a big change...
Director biography
Gu Tao was born in 1970 in Inner Mongolia, China, where his father was an ethnographer and photographer. Gu graduated in 1995 from Inner Mongolia Art College with a major in oil painting. After studying photography at the China Academy of Art in Beijing, he started making documentaries, many of which have one awards at international film festivals (Yamagata 2011, Singapore 2012). Gu Tao pursues his ethnographic documentary vocation from a home in the artists’ village of Songzhuang, Beijing.