The Archaeology Channel

 

Produced and directed by documentary film-maker Michael Bott and presented by naturalist and explorer Rupert Soskin, this is a first-hand account from Rupert of a journey taken through the British Isles and Ireland, starting at the tip of Cornwall and ending on the Scottish Isles, visiting more than 100 Neolithic and Bronze age monuments en route. Beautiful to look at and aiming to be enlightening, the film explores the diversity and wonder of these extraordinary enigmatic structures. It also looks at some of the explanations and absurdities which attach to them. Rupert Soskin has a deep knowledge of the subject, but also a refreshingly open-minded attitude to the whos, the hows and especially the whys of the stone construction. The entire project was conceived and realized entirely by Michael Bott and Rupert Soskin, with a camera, a camper van, two very understanding wives, and a passion for stones.

 

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Length: 135 min.
Country: UK
Language: English
Director: Michael Bott, Illuminated World Ltd.
Producer: Michael Bott, Illuminated World Ltd.
Producer Web site: http://www.standingwithstones.com/
Distributor: The Disinformation Company Ltd.
Distributor Web site: http://www.disinfo.com/

 

 

 

Festival Screenings and Awards:

Premiere at the Chipping North Theatre, Oxfordshire, England, 2008

 

In August 2004, Bulgarian archaeologist Dr. Gueorgui Kitov made a spectacular discovery when he entered an old, untouched tomb in the Valley of the Thracian Kings, an area next to Sofia, Bulgaria. Bearing invaluable testimony to the historic kings from the height of the Thracian culture in 4th century B.C., the three rooms of this gigantic mausoleum held a number of priceless objects. These bore Greek inscriptions, unveiling a king who battled Alexander the Great. Dr. Kitov reveals what he believes is the hidden past of this tomb, exposing secret practices of immortalization.

 

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Length: 52 min.
Country: France
Language: English
Director: Zlatina Rousseva
Producer: Alice Colin and Alicia Fanini, Crescendo Films
Producer Web site: http://www.crescendofilms.fr/?lang=en
Distributor: ARTE France
Distributor Web site: http://www.artefrance.fr/

 

 

Festival Screenings and Awards:

Best documentary, Plovdiv’s Festival, Bulgaria
Primo Paolo Orzi Prize, International Review of Archaeological Cinema, Rovereto, Italy
Prize of Europe, International Festival of the Archaeological Film of Besançon, France
French TV
Belgian TV

In the final installment of this film series, we go to Cairo and visit Mukattam, the city of garbage collectors, where more than 40,000 inhabitants survive by recycling garbage. We find a Polish sculptor who makes monumental sculptures on the walls of the Coptic Monastery. Visits to the famous Khan al Khalili bazaar, Coptic churches and Muslim mosques reveal the real atmosphere of today’s Egypt. In the Nile Delta, an archaeological team discovers an early settlement from 5500 years ago. We find the oldest breweries in Tell-el-Farka, one of the biggest archaeological sensations in Egypt in recent years. Discoveries in the Delta region throw new light on one of the least studied periods of Egypt’s history. Our journey along the Nile ends in Alexandria, where archaeologists uncovered ruins of the Roman town in the city center. Among many great discoveries, the most spectacular are the world’s oldest known ruins of a university.

 

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Length: 29 min.
Country: Poland
Language: English
Director: Wladyslaw Jurkow
Producer: Arkadia Film
Producer Web site: http://www.arkadiafilm.pl/en.html
Distributor: TVP S.A.
Distributor Web site: http://dystrybucja.tvp.pl/?lid=2

 

Festival Screenings and Awards:

Polish TV, 2008

In the second installment of this film series, our journey through the history of the greatest ancient civilization begins with a visit to Elephantine Island, known as the “Southern Gate of Egypt.” This island on the Nile was a worship center of the gods of the Great River of Egypt since prehistoric times. In today’s Luxor, ancient Thebes, a film crew visits archaeologists discovering the secrets of Hatshepsut, the female Pharaoh, one of the most mysterious figures of ancient Egypt. In Saqqara, Prof. Karol Mysliwiec presents recent discoveries at a cemetery from the Old Kingdom. There, in the grave of the vizier Meref-Nebef, we learn about the life of the highest state official at the court of Pharaoh Teti more than 4200 years ago.

 

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Length: 29 min.
Country: Poland
Language: English
Director: Wladyslaw Jurkow
Producer: Arkadia Film
Producer Web site: http://www.arkadiafilm.pl/en.html
Distributor: TVP S.A.
Distributor Web site: http://dystrybucja.tvp.pl/?lid=2

 

 

Festival Screenings and Awards:

Broadcast on Polish Public Television Channel 2 (TVP2), 2008

Explore the History of Nubia, an ancient kingdom between the 1st and 6th Cataract on the Nile. The journey along the Nile in this film series begins in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, where the Blue Nile joins the White Nile. Khartoum is a place to learn about the spiritual and historical heritage of Sudan, the largest country in Africa. In the area of the 4th Cataract where the huge Merowe Dam was built, archaeologists from the National Museum in Gdansk, Poland, save priceless monuments of prehistoric cultures. The visit to Banganarti and Old Dongola gives an insight into the history of Makuria, the Christian kingdom of ancient Africa. Monuments of Meroe, Jebel Barkal and Kerma show different periods of Nubian history.

 

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Length: 31 min.
Country: Poland
Language: English
Director: Wladyslaw Jurkow
Producer: Arkadia Film
Producer Web site: http://www.arkadiafilm.pl/en.html
Distributor: TVP S.A.
Distributor Web site: http://dystrybucja.tvp.pl/?lid=2

Festival Screenings and Awards:

Broadcast on Polish Public Television Channel 2 (TVP2), 2008

After 25 years of devastating conflicts, Cambodians are looking into their past to recover their pride and the lost knowledge of their extraordinary culture. Twelve centuries ago, the Khmer people were ruling the Angkorian Empire, one of the most amazing civilizations on Earth. Ancient epigraphic sources suggest that the origin of this empire lies underneath the tropical forest, on the plateau of Phnom Kulen. To better understand the origin of the Khmer Empire and offer archaeological rewards back to Cambodians, the Archaeology and Development Foundation has launched a unique program dedicated to the Phnom Kulen. The program’s objectives are to promote archaeological discoveries and secure the Phnom Kulen’s heritage, to train local specialists to preserve these sites and to provide substantial economic and social benefits to the local population.

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Length: 26 min.
Country: France
Language: English
Director: Olivier Roussin
Producer: ZED
Producer Web site: http://www.zed.fr
Distributor: ZED
Distributor Web site: http://www.zed.fr

This documentary concerns the historic steam engine paddle ship Patris, which sank in 1868. This type of boat is unique because it used wheels for movement. It was manufactured at a time before the advent of the screw propeller, when most ships were made of wood. This particular boat was one of very few made of metal and for this reason it was preserved. It was a luxurious vessel that had a paddle-wheel steam engine, but also had sails. Patris was property of “Hellenic Steam Navigation Company,” the first coastal shipping company that was founded in Greece. The film was made with the collaboration of the Museum of Industrial Heritage of Syros, subordinate to the Municipality of Syros, Greece, and the Greek Ministry of Culture, the National Institute of Research, the Department of Underwater Antiquities, and the Underwater Filming Research (UFR) diving team.

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Length: 63 min.
Country: Greece
Language: Greek with English subtitles
Director: Vassilis Mentogianis, George Nikolaidis
Producer: Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation, TEXNIS, and the Museum of Industrial Heritage of Syros
Producer Web site: http://www.ert.gr/en/
Distributor:
Distributor Web site:

Marie-Dominique Nenna is an archaeologist and specialist in ancient glasswork. This film follows her search to locate the primary workshops in Egypt that produced the raw glass necessary to satisfy a growing demand for glassware during the Roman era. Beginning in archives and libraries, she then sets off to explore the hinterland of Alexandria and the oasis of Wadi Natroun. There, with the aid of geophysical surveys and traditional excavation techniques, she uncovers, on the site of Beni Salama, the largest tank furnaces of antiquity, installations that could produce a glass slab of 15 to 20 tons in a single firing.

 

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Length: 22 min.
Country: Egypt
Language: English
Director: Raymond Collet
Producer: Jean-Yves Empereur, Center for Alexandrian Studies
Producer Web site: http://www.cealex.org/sitecealex/navigation/FENETRclip_NAVclip_E.HTM
Distributor: Harpocrates Publishing
Distributor Web site: http://www.harpocrates-publishing.com/index.html

 

 

Festival Screenings and Awards:

International Festival of the Archaeological Film of Besançon, France, 2009

 

Mochican iconography literally comes to life in this film, which portrays a ceremony of sacrifice that was carried out by the Moche culture between A.D. 100 and 800. Each part of the ceremony is shown, beginning with the battle of great warriors. We follow the procession of warriors as they bring the willing sacrificial victim to his complicated death. The complexity of this ritual is revealed in its entirety in this short film, providing an incredible insight into a civilization many have only heard rumors of.

 

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Length: 6 min.
Country: Belgium
Language: none
Director:
Producer: Royal Museum for Art and History Brussels
Producer Web site: http://www.kmkg-mrah.be/
Distributor: ASEHS
Distributor Web site: http://www.asehs.com/

 

Festival Screenings and Awards:

Special Mention of the jury, Kineon: International Festival of Archaeological Film, Brussels, Belgium

 

In 1824, during the twilight of Native American dominion, two conflicted Ioway leaders met with William Clark, one of the principals of the earlier Lewis and Clark Expedition, to sign a momentous treaty. White Cloud saw cooperation as survival for his people, while Great Walker regretted the loss of their ancestral homeland. This pivotal moment led both men to different tragic destinies in their battle with epic change. Ioway Elders join historians and archaeologists to tell the dramatic and true story of the small tribe that once claimed the territory between the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers from Pipestone, Minnesota, to St. Louis. What was a quest for survival in the past has become a struggle to retain a unique Native American culture and language in the present.

 

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Length: 57 min.
Country: U.S.A.
Language: English
Director:
Producer: Kelly and Tammy Rundle, Fourth Wall Films
Producer Web site: http://fourthwallfilms.com/
Distributor: Fourth Wall Films
Distributor Web site: http://fourthwallfilms.com/

 

Festival Screenings and Awards:

Premiere at State Historical Society Building, Des Moines, Iowa, 2007
Putnam Museum IMAX Theater, Davenport, Iowa, 2007
Beloit International Film Festival, Beloit Wisconsin, 2008
Official Selection, Best Documentary, Iowa Connection, Cedar Rapids Independent Film Festival, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 2008
Best Documentary, Independent Film Festival, Mason City, Iowa, 2008
Telly Award, 2008
Ross Media Center, Lincoln, Nebraska, 2008
Official Selection, Audience Favorite, Landlocked Film Festival, Iowa City, Iowa, 2008
Best Multi-Cultural Documentary, International Cherokee Film Festival, Tulsa, Oklahoma, 2008;