The Shaman's Journey
Gu Tao
Release year: 2016
Run time: 68 mins
Film type: Documentary
Synopsis
Erdeng is a shaman from the grasslands of West Ujimqin Banner near the Mongolian border in China. When he was young, he studied under a respected shaman in Mongolia. Baolidao, Erdeng’s son, prefers a more modern life in China. In 2012, they travelled to Mongolia and, seeing the power of the shaman with his own eyes, Baolidao began to develop a new appreciation for his people.
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.