The Archaeology Channel

How would you feel if the only home you knew had its very existence threatened? Life in Limbo is a portrait of life in the town of Hasankeyf, in southeastern Turkey. This dramatic town of caves is located near the borders of Iraq and Syria and was once a part of many empires, from the Romans to the Persians. It has been inhabited since the 9th Century B.C. and is considered an archaeological treasure because it is the finest example of a medieval city in the region. Hasankeyf has endured upheavals through the centuries but it now faces a seemingly insurmountable threat to its survival; a proposed dam on the Tigris River that will submerge the town. Through a combination of verite scenes, lyrical landscape images and interviews, Hasankeyf is revealed as a town of long traditions, an archaeological treasure and finally, a community that is fated to be destroyed.

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Length: 40 min.
Country: U.S.A.
Language: English
Director:
Producer: Sakae Ishikawa/212 Film World LLC
Producer Web site: http://www.hasankeyffilm.com/home
Distributor:
Distributor Web site:

This film tells the story of the excavations at Herculaneum, following Amedeo Maiuri, the archaeologist who in little more than 30 years brought to light the Roman city, which had been destroyed along with Pompeii by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79. Today, two-thirds of the ancient city still lies under the modern city of Ercolano. In order to continue the excavations, large parts of the modern city would have to be knocked down, as Maiuri had started to do a few years before his death. The diaries of Maiuri, together with interviews and unseen footage, lead us in the discovery of the archaeological site and invite us to consider the relationship that humans have with their past along with our desire to discover it, to understand it and to preserve it in time.

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Length: 52 min.
Country: Italy
Language: English
Director:
Producer: Marcellino de Baggis, Onionskin
Producer Web site: http://www.onionskin.it/
Distributor: Onionskin
Distributor Web site: http://www.onionskin.it/

Through the story of Komusa Tanapo, a mason in Djenne, and his family, this documentary examines an African tradition of mud architecture in Mali. The environmental genius of these ancient construction techniques, using thick walls with tiny windows that keep the interiors cool despite the stifling heat, is expressed in beautiful designs that have won the town of Djenne designation as a World Heritage site. The Future of Mud reveals Komusa’s hand building methods, utilizing sun-dried bricks made from the flood plain mud containing decayed fish and cattle manure and mixed with organic materials such as straw and rice chaff. He goes to work on two building sites and at the annual repair of the Great Mosque, employing thousand-year-old construction techniques and the secrets he inherited from his family of masons, including religious rituals to protect homes and workers from evil spirits.

 

 

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Length: 58 min.
Country: USA, Mali
Language: English
Director: Susan Vogel, Prince Street Pictures
Producer: Susan Vogel, Prince Street Pictures
Producer Web site: http://www.susan-vogel.com/
Distributor: Icarus Films
Distributor Web site: http://www.icarusfilms.com

Festival Screenings and Awards:

RAI International Festival of Ethnographic Films, 2007
Vancouver Pan-African FF, 2007
Architecture Film Festival, Rotterdam, Holland, 2007
ARTFIFA 2008

Death or Canada presents an epic tale of sacrifice and courage in the face of adversity. In 1847, Ireland was in the grip of a famine that would claim more than a million lives and force a million more to leave their country, escaping to North America in the holds of “coffin ships.” This docudrama reveals a forgotten chapter of the great Irish famine and how sick, desperate migrants unleashed upon North America a public health and refugee crisis beyond imagination. The film follows archaeologists as they uncover evidence of the refugee camp in the heart of what is now Toronto’s entertainment district. A leading epidemiologist dissects primitive treatments for the typhus epidemic that followed the Irish everywhere. More than a century and a half later, the impact of the Irish famine still reverberates. The crisis transformed a city, a nation and a continent, reshaping North American society forever.

 

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Length: 94 min.
Country: Canada/Ireland
Language: English
Director:
Producer: Craig Thompson, Ballinran Productions
Producer Web site: http://www.ballinran.com/
Distributor: Ballinran Productions
Distributor Web site: http://www.ballinran.com/

 

Festival Screenings and Awards:

Best documentary Series (Nominee) in Irish Film and Television Academy Award, 2009
Best History Documentary Program or Series, Canadian Academy of Cinema and Television Gemini Awards, 2009
Best Photography in an Information Program or Series, Canadian Academy of Cinema and Television Gemini Awards, 2009
Best Sound in an Information Program or Series, Canadian Academy of Cinema and Television Gemini Awards, 2009
Best Original Score in an Information Program or Series, Canadian Academy of Cinema and Television Gemini Awards, 2009.
Irish TV, 2008
British TV, 2009
Canadian TV, 2009

 

A team of scientific detectives from around the world attempt to crack one of science’s most enduring mysteries: what killed the Australian megafauna? Long after the extinction of the dinosaurs, extraordinary species of giant beasts roamed the earth, ruling the animal kingdom for hundreds of thousands of years. But suddenly, about 46,000 years ago, they vanished. Something happened that wiped them off the face of the planet forever. Recent discoveries could now help solve the mystery and offer insight into environmental problems today that threaten the world and mankind.

 

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Length: 53 min.
Country: Australia
Language: English
Director:
Producer: Prospero Productions
Producer Web site: http://www.prospero.com.au
Distributor: National Geographic Television International
Distributor Web site: http://www.natgeotv-int.com

 

 

Festival Screenings and Awards:

Broadcast on National Geographic, US, 2009
Finalist in the Enhance TV Atom Awards, Documentary Category, Australia, 2009.

Inspired by the short story “Agony of Rasu Niti” by Peruvian writer Jose Maria Arguedas, this film follows Nina, a 10-year-old girl whose life dramatically changes when her father, a Scissors Dancer master, asks her to fulfill his last wish. Set in modern day Peru, the film is crafted as a drama in which this traditional dance plays an important spiritual role. Nina finds a passionate meaning in the traditions passed down to her from her ailing father and with that passion she fights to grant him his last wish.

 

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Length: 19 min.
Country: Peru
Language: Spanish with English subtitles
Director: Gabriela Yepes
Producer: Gabriela Yepes
Producer Web site:
Distributor: Gabriela Yepes
Distributor Web site:

Festival Screenings and Awards:

Best Student Narrative Short, Emerging Filmmakers Showcase, Cannes Film Festival, 2009
Best Short, Diversity and Equity Film Festival, State University at Connecticut, 2009
Best Short, Marin County Film Festival, San Rafael, California, 2009
Best Narrative Short, Austin Film Festival, Austin, Texas, 2008
Best Student Narrative Short, Austin Film Festival, Texas, 2008
Best Short on Celluloid and Best Short Screenplay, Peruvian Film council National Contest, 2008 Nieste Tarani Medal and TVR Craoiwa Award, Slatioara Film Festival, Romania

This film focuses on the lives of three generations of Achuar, who live in the Peruvian Amazon. A young boy, Chumpi, his father, Secha, and his grandfather, Irar, make an upriver trip to a sacred waterfall, where both adults received their visions as young men. They travel through the tropical rainforest in an adventure into the spiritual world of these indigenous people. Their journey gives insight into the Achuar culture, as they try to continue their traditions while facing conflicts with oil companies and the encroaching industrial world.

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Length: 47 min.
Country: Peru
Language: Spanish and Achuar with English subtitles
Director: Fernando Valdivia
Producer: Teleandes Producciones
Producers Web site: http://www.teleandes.tv
Distributor: Producciones
Distributor Web site: http://www.teleandes.tv