TAC Fest 2012 Pages
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High in the mountains of Taiwan is the village of Smangus, inhabited by a group of indigenous people, a remnant of the native Austronesian population that dominated the island before Chinese immigrants arrived in the 17th Century. Twenty years ago, the tribe was amongst the poorest on the island. However, the chief, Icyeh Sulung, had a vision of great trees that would ensure the tribe’s survival. The tribe found a forest of cypress trees that were to change their future. The interest from tourists turned Smangus into a thriving eco-tourism center. The sudden wealth and pressures from outside wreaked havoc with the tribe’s unity and the tribe made a fateful decision to ensure their future: everything among them was to be shared. Now, the Public Television Service Taiwan tells the story of Smangus.
Length: 85 min.
Country: Taiwan
Language: Mandarin Chinese/Atayal with English subtitles
Director: Dean Johnson and Frank Smith
Producer: Selena Tsao, Public Televison Service Foundation
Producer Website: http://www.pts.org.tw
Distributor: Public Television Service Foundatio
Distributor Web site: http://www.pts.org.tw
Festival Screenings and Awards:
Best Indigenous & Native Peoples Documentary and Honorable Mention for Educational Value, Montana Cine Festival.
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In the 1970s, near the village of Aidonia, in the Greek municipality of Nemea, a mule fell into a hole. Upon rescuing the animal, villagers discovered a rare golden treasure buried amidst a group of skeletons. A few years later, archaeologists arrived at the looted site. Sixteen of the 18 tombs already had been emptied, but a small stash of jewelry had been overlooked by the tomb robbers. Later, a collection of Mycenaean jewelry went up for sale at an auction house in New York City. This is the story of the plunder of Mycenaean tombs and of the recovery of a treasure made of gold.
Length: 9 min.
Country: Greece
Language: English
Director: Angeli Andrikopoulou and Argyris Tsepelikas
Producer: Rea Apostolides, Anemon Productions
Producer Website: http://www.anemon.gr
Distributor: Anemon Productions
Distributor Web site: http://www.anemon.gr
Festival Screenings and Awards:
N/A
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During his stay on the island from 1865 until 1876, the American consul in Cyprus, Luigi Palma di Cesnola, became an amateur archaeologist in order to profit from the trade of antiquities. He gathered up more than 35,000 objects. When local authorities prohibited the export of this enormous collection, Cesnola loaded his treasures onto boats and shipped them to New York. Although the island had been heavily pillaged, fifty years after Cesnola’s departure, a village priest led archaeologists to the village of Agia Eirini, where they made a unique discovery of great importance for the entire Eastern Mediterranean.
Length: 10 min.
Country: Greece
Language: English
Director: Angeli Andrikopoulou and Argyris Tsepelikas
Producer: Rea Apostolides, Anemon Productions
Producer Website: http://www.anemon.gr
Distributor: Anemon Productions
Distributor Web site: http://www.anemon.gr
Festival Screenings and Awards:
N/A
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In 1871, in the cliffs of Deir El Behri near the village of Qurna, not far from Luxor in Egypt, a young boy called Ahmed El-Rassul accidentally discovered a hidden tomb in the belly of the mountain near his home. Ahmed and his family looted the tomb for over a decade until their activities became known to the Egyptian antiquities service. When archaeologists arrived, they were stunned by what they saw. The tomb contained more than fifty royal mummies. This sensational discovery had a profound impact on what was known of Egyptian history and reminded everyone that looting has been an Egyptian nemesis for thousands of years.
Length: 10 min.
Country: Greece
Language: English
Director: Angeli Andrikopoulou and Argyris Tsepelikas
Producer: Rea Apostolides, Anemon Productions
Producer Website: http://www.anemon.gr
Distributor: Anemon Productions
Distributor Web site: http://www.anemon.gr
Festival Screenings and Awards:
N/A
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Join award-winning underwater cameraman Michael Pitts and New Forest National Park Authority maritime archaeologists on an underwater adventure. In this film, they explore five wrecks in the Western Solent and beyond the Needles, in a busy shipping lane in southern England between the Isle of Wight and the mainland. Learn how archaeologists discover the stories and secrets of these forgotten vessels, as well as the rewards this work can reveal. The ships investigated for the New Forest Coastal Heritage project include the Ceres, Fenna, SS War Knight, SS Serrana and MV Margaret Smith.
Length: 28 min.
Country: UK
Language: English
Director: Michael Pitts
Producer: Michael Pitts and Frank Spencer, Michael Pitts LTD
Producer Website: http://www.michaelpitts.co.uk
Distributor: Redweather Productions
Distributor Web site: http://www.redweather.tv
Festival Screenings and Awards:
Film Premier in UK, 2011; Festival Mondial de L’image sous - Marine Bulletin D’insciption (Antibies Underwater Film Festival), 2011.
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Be prepared for a truly fresh look at the exploits of English Parliamentarian commander Robert Blake under Oliver Cromwell during the first English Civil War. From July 1644 to July 1645, the city of Taunton, the only Parliamentery enclave in the southwest of England, under the leadership of Colonel Blake held out against the Royalist forces led by Lord Goring. Blake, who went on to become a legendary admiral, famously declared that he had four pairs of boots and would eat three pairs before he would surrender. This film relates the archaeology and history of the period as well as Blake’s influence on the outcome of the conflict.
Length: 12 min.
Country: UK
Language: English
Director: Ros Evans
Producer: Ros Evans
Producer Website: N/A
Distributor: Ros Evans
Distributor Web site: N/A
Festival Screenings and Awards:
N/A
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This film, through the fictional narration of a real Nineteenth Century icon creator in Greece, presents the fundamental contribution of the Monastery of Panagia Faneromeni, or Monastery of the Virgin Mary Revealed, to the social and cultural life in the Ionian island of Lefkada. “Virgin Mary Revealed” refers to the vision of the Fifth Century creator of the original icon, Kallistos, which was revealed to him in full detail, according to legend. The monastery and its church were destroyed and rebuilt numerous times in the nearly two millennia of their existence. The film came about as part of a European-funded project to conserve and restore the monastery’s archives.
Length: 26 min.
Country: Greece
Language: Greek with English subtitles
Director: Spyros Tsiftsis
Producer: The Holy Monastery of Faneromeni, Lefkas
Producer Website: N/A
Distributor: Spyros Tsiftsis
Distributor Web site: N/A
Festival Screenings and Awards:
N/A
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When anthropologist Spencer MacCallum walked into a second-hand store in Deming, New Mexico, in 1976 and bought three pieces of pottery, he had no idea that he was about to embark on a journey that would lead to the revival of an ancient art form. Finding his way to Mata Ortiz, México, MacCallum partnered with self-taught artist Juan Quezada and slowly they created an industry that today is known world-wide not only for its interpretations of a centuries-old style of ceramics, but for stunning post-modern works as well. The Renaissance of Mata Ortiz tells the improbable story of how Quezada (without a kiln or a potter’s wheel and using only found materials) and MacCallum both experienced creative and personal breakthroughs which led to dazzling, innovating works by Quezada and a passing of the torch to younger, award-winning artists such as Diego Valles.
Length: 54 min.
Country: USA
Language: Spanish with English subtitles
Director: Scott Petersen
Producer: Scott Petersen
Producer Website: http://www.mataortizmovie.com
Distributor: Scott Petersen
Distributor Web site: http://www.mataortizmovie.com
Festival Screenings and Awards:
University of Southern California; San Diego Museum of Man; Harwood Museum of Art , Taos, NM; Tubac Center for the Arts, AZ
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Under the reign of Ramesses the Second, pharaoh of the New Empire’s 19th Dynasty, Egypt was living the final hours of its golden age. After a reign of 67 years, the powerful emperor died at the age of 92. He became the legendary “Ramesses the Great.” His mummy was interred in the heart of the Valley of the Kings, on the west bank of the Nile at Thebes. This marked the beginning of his Great Journey towards the afterlife, where he met with eternity on the condition that his tomb be preserved for all time. This film relates a fascinating investigation through time and space and reveals the fantastic and macabre story of the “after-life” of Ramesses the Second.
Length: 63 min.
Country: France
Language: English
Director: Valerie Girie and Guillaume Hecht
Producer: Les Films du Scribe
Producer Website: http://www.lesfilmsduscribe.com
Distributor: France Télévisions Distribution
Distributor Web site: http://www.ftd-it-content-book.com
Festival Screenings and Awards:
Film Festival of Besançon, France.
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Accounts of the large white horse with a large, pointed spiraling horn projecting from its forehead are found in natural history accounts of ancient Greek writers. Is the unicorn just a legend or did it actually exist, simply disappearing like the Dodo or the Tasmanian Tiger? The Quest for the Unicorn traces the rise of the unicorn in world literature and relates how its journey through history mirrored the slow emergence of scientific thought in the Christian world, which saw the unicorn as a reincarnation of Christ himself.
Length: 52 min.
Country: France
Language: English and French
Director: Emmanuel Laurent
Producer: Emmanuel Laurent, Films A Trios
Producer Website: http://www.filmsatrois.com
Distributor: Dash Films and Films A Trios
Distributor Web site: http://www.filmsatrois.com
Festival Screenings and Awards:
International Review of Archaeological Cinema, Rovereto, Italy, 2011.