Taiga. 1992. Northern Mongolia. Written and directed by Ulrike Ottinger. DCP of restoration courtesy Arsenal. In Mongolian and German with English subtitles. 501 min.
Taiga was described by director Ulrike Ottinger as “a journey to the yak and reindeer nomads of Northern Mongolia. I shot the landscape, the people, what they were doing. Each shot was like a little story in itself.” This monumental observational documentary is a perception-changing experience that lasts for eight and a half hours. Presented at Light Industry in 2009 by guest programmer Ginger Brooks Takahashi, the film will be shown here in a newly restored version with two intermissions. In a four-star review for the film, Roger Ebert wrote that “for those who are curious, Taiga is an experience that causes us to think about why we live as we do, what it is to be human, and what is important in life.”