Screening: The Last Moose of Aoluguya

Part of the film series
Waking the Green Tiger: Documentaries from the Front Lines of China's Environmental Crisis
(August 18-27, 2014)

The Last Moose of Aoluguya
Dir. Gu Tao. China. 2013. 100 min. Chinese with English subtitles.

For five years, filmmaker Gu Tao follows Weijia, a member of the Ewenti minority group with a dwindling population in northern China. The charismatic and yet often drunk herdsman/hunter wanders in the woods, releasing moose from wire traps set by antler traders, singing his heart out, and getting completely wasted. Behind his tough façade and drunkenness is a deep despair caused by the gradual destruction of his habitat and culture, as Han Chinese displace his people and cause irreversible harm to the Ewenti way of life.

Q&A to follow with cinematographer Zhao Jiewei. Moderated by La Frances Hui, Film Curator, Asia Society.

Watch the Q&A on video here. 

"An audacious and powerful visual chronicle of the fortunes of a dying breed" — Clarence Tsui, The Hollywood Reporter