The Indigenous Film Festival, curated by Tatiana Degai (University of British Columbia, Canada), was held at the Indigenous Pavilion from March 24 to 28, 2025. The festival featured several films created in collaboration with the Frozen Commons project.
The digital storytelling film “Witnessing Frozen Commons in Northern Mongolia” was screened at the Indigenous Film Festival during the Arctic Science Summit Week (ASSW) in Boulder on March 26, 2025
As part of the Indigenous Film Festival, the Frozen Commons team presented a 10-minute digital storytelling film titled “Witnessing Frozen Commons in Northern Mongolia.” Co-created by a multidisciplinary group of scholars and artists—Denis Dabaev, Mariia Kuklina, Olga Lo, Andrey Petrov, and Vera Kuklina—the film offers an evocative glimpse into Mongolia’s frozen landscapes and the nomadic cultures that inhabit them.
The film follows the research team’s journey to the remote Khovsgol aimag in northern Mongolia, where they explore the concept of frozen commons—snow, ice, and permafrost landscapes deeply intertwined with nomadic herders’ ways of life. Through immersive fieldwork and close collaboration with local communities, the team reveals how these frozen elements function not only as essential sources of water and moisture but also as natural infrastructure supporting livelihoods, mobility, and cultural continuity.
As climate change accelerates, these landscapes are undergoing rapid transformation. Cold seasons are shortening, and the frequency of dzuds—severe winter weather events that cause widespread livestock loss—is increasing. The film highlights how local knowledge, strategies of adaptation, and cultural resilience provide valuable insights for Arctic regions and beyond, inspiring more context-sensitive and sustainable responses to the climate crisis.
“Keepers of the Tundra,” a compelling documentary by directors Diana Khudaeva and Sardaana Barabanova, was a featured film at the Indigenous Film Festival in Boulder on March 26, 2025. The screening was part of the Arctic Science Summit Week (ASSW) and offers viewers an intimate portrait of Indigenous communities in the Arctic tundra.
