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The Fitzwilliam Museum is part of Cambridge University and houses a world-class collection of art and antiquities. In this film we uncover the secrets of four of its most precious objects: Titian’s great, late masterpiece, Tarquin and Lucretia; the 3000-year old coffins of an Egyptian temple official; a rare 13th Century Gothic manuscript that once belonged to the sister of Louis IX of France; and the haunting impressionist masterpiece Two Women at a Café, by Degas. Still images courtesy of and copyrighted by the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge University.
Length: 26 min.
Country: UK
Language: English
Producer: Eye to Eye Television
Producer website: www.eyetoeyetv.co.uk
Distributor: Journeyman Pictures
Distributor Web site: www.journeyman.tv
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Few names conjure as much mystery as that of Timbuktu. For centuries, Europeans heard legends of a mythical city in the heart of the Sahara, the source of endless caravans of gold. But it took 500 years to find it and by then the glory was gone. Now the search continues into the deserts of Timbuktu to find the source of its great power, wealth, and mystery.
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Length: 47 min.
Country: USA
Language: English
Producer: William Gardner, JWM Productions
Producer website: www.jwmprods.com
Distributor: The History Channel / A&E Television Networks
Distributor Web site: www.jwmprods.com
Festival Screenings and Awards:
The History Channel
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For 25 centuries the Parthenon has been shot at, set on fire, rocked by earthquakes, looted for its sculptures, almost destroyed by explosion, and disfigured by well-meaning renovations. It has gone from temple to church, to mosque, to munitions dump. What could be next? How about a scientific search for the secrets of its incomparable beauty and astonishingly rapid construction? Over the last 32 years, experts have disassembled, analyzed, and painstakingly repaired thousands of marble blocks, bringing to light the Parthenon's astonishing, unsuspected design features. The Parthenon conceals subtleties that at first glance seem impossible given the techniques of the day. Ancient Greek building secrets are revealed that are as ingenious, concise and as easy to use as anything in today's toolbox of architectural techniques.
Length: 57 min.
Country: USA
Language: English
Producer: Gary Glassman and Providence Pictures for WGBH/NOVA
Producer website: www.providencepictures.com
Distributor: WGBH/NOVA
Distributor Web site: www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/parthenon/
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Rapayan is an adventure that whirls together culture shock with elements of the mystical. It focuses on the upheaval that the people of the isolated village of Rapayan are experiencing. Living in Peru’s highlands, they are the direct descendants of a once great civilization. As we follow Canadian archaeologist Alexis Mantha and his team searching their ancestors’ ruins, we discover a culture that has forgotten its past. Conflict arises. The ruins threaten to crumble and Rapayan’s peace is in jeopardy. The village comes to a turning point. The signs are there. A foreigner is unearthing mummies. Past, present and future become blurred as a paved road advances towards Rapayan and modernity catches up with its people.
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Length: 52 min.
Country: Canada
Language: Spanish, French, Quechua
Producer: Daniel Plante, Arrimage Productions
Producer website: www.arrimage.ca
Distributor: Filmoption International
Distributor Web site: www.filmoption.com
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The history of Arslantepe in Malatya (eastern Anatolia) dates back to the Fifth Millennium BC. The Italian Archaeological Mission, supervised by Professor Marcella Frangipane, has successfully brought to light important remains that symbolize the universality of Anatolian cultures. Each year Frangipane leaves Italy on a long, impervious, and adventurous trip to the Arslantepe site. The Passion of Memory is the story of thirty years of “unexpected surprises” and important discoveries and of the love for those magical and mysterious places. It is the story of everyday life on the sites and of the relationships that have been established with local collaborators. Once the fieldworkers were farmers, but today their children are university students working to pay their fees and interested in learning the culture and the language of Italy.
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Length: 30 min.
Country: Italy
Language: Italian; English subtitles
Producer: Isabella Astengo, RAI Educational, and Duna Film
Producer website: N/A
Distributor: RAI Trade
Distributor Web site: http://www.raitrade.it
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In Yakoutia, a forgotten province of Siberia, anthropologist Eric Crubezy unearths a strange tomb containing the body of a woman. Her eyes are covered, and she is clothed in a garment of pearls. Who was she? Why were her sleeves sewn closed at the ends? Is she a princess or a shaman? Set up like a detective film, The Mummy Who Came From the Cold documents the scientific investigation into this mysterious woman’s identity.
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Length: 52 min.
Country: France
Language: English
Producer: Marc Jampolsky, Gedeon Programmes
Producer website: http://www.gedeonprogrammes.com
Distributor: Terranoa
Distributor Web site: http://www.terranoa.com
Festival Screenings and Awards:
Best Film, Cinarchea: International Archaeology Film and Art Festival, Kiel, Germany, 2008
Public Award, Kineon: International Festival of Archaeological Film, Brussels, Belgium, 2007
Jury Award Adventure Screens 2007, Dijon, France
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At the beginning of the 5th century, Imperial Rome is dying out. However, Greco-Roman civilization lives on. In the East, cities surrounding Constantinople continue to flourish and experience relative stability until the end of the 7th century when they become the Byzantine Empire. One city, located in Anatolia in the province of Pisidia, tells the story of this moment in history known as “Late Antiquity.” Untouched for centuries, the city of Sagalassos sleeps, waiting for Marc Waelkens, a Belgian archaeologist, to play the role of Prince Charming. The Last Romans asks the question of how people lived during this maelstrom of history between the Pax Romana and the first kingdoms of the Middle Ages.
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Length: 52 min.
Country: Belgium
Language: English
Producer: Philippe Axell, Axell Communication
Producer website: www.axellcom.com
Distributor: Axell Communication
Distributor Web site: www.axellcom.com
Festival Screenings and Awards:
Archaeology Prize, Kineon: International Festival of Archaeological Film, Brussels, Belgium, 2007
Special Mention of the Jury, AGON: International Meeting of Archaeological Film of the Mediterranean Area, Thessaloniki, Greece, 2008
Cinarchea: International Archaeology Film and Art Festival, Kiel, Germany 2008
International Review of Archaeological Cinema, Rovereto, Italy 2008
Arkeolan: International Archaeological Film Festival of the Bidasoa, Irun, Spain, 2008
Audience favorite film and best creative content, ICRONOS: International Festival of Archaeological Film, Bordeaux, France, 2008
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In this poetic documentary about the impact of British colonialism in Australia, the film maker explores her personal responsibility as a “newcomer” Australian to the First Australians and to “country.” In the historic year of the 2008 apology to the Stolen Generations, Island Home Country encourages all Australians to acknowledge the First Australians, to care for country, and to work together in a process of decolonization. The film’s consultative and process-based way of working with members of the Tasmanian Aboriginal community suggests an evolving shift in Australian historical narratives from the frontier wars, with a race-based paradigm, to a more complex one of diverse peoples working through historical trauma together.
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Length: 52 min.
Country: Australia
Language: English
Producer: Jeni Thornley
Producer website: http://www.jenithornley.com; http://jenithornleydoco.blogspot.com
Distributor: Jeni Thornley
Distributor Web site: http://www.jenithornley.com
Festival Screenings and Awards:
Brisbane International Film Festival, 2008
Nominated for UTS Human Rights Award, 2008
Re-Orienting Whiteness Conference: Melbourne, 2008
Nominated for Best Achievement in Sound for a Documentary, Australian Screen Sound Awards, 2008.
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In the barren landscape of remote western Tibet lie the ruins of a mysterious kingdom whose capital, high on the Tibetan plateau, offers archaeological treasures comparable with Italy’s Pompeii. Once controlling the trade in gold, silk and spices between India and China, Guge was a kingdom of fabulous wealth and great religious significance - the cradle of Himalayan Buddhism. Yet, this spiritual and commercial hub vanished without a trace in 1630. Extraordinary altitude, hostile terrain and political upheaval have prevented all but a select few from making a serious study in this area. Guge: Lost Kingdom of Tibet follows two of the world’s experts, Tibetan Historian Tsering Gyalpo and American archaeologist John Bellezza to the extreme corner of western Tibet to unravel its mystery.
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Length: 47 min.
Country: Singapore
Language: English
Producer: Keiko Bang, Bang Productions
Producer website: N/A
Distributor: Off The Fence
Distributor Web site: www.offthefence.com
Festival Screenings and Awards:
The Discovery Channel
Gold Medal at Remi-World Fest 2008, Houston, Texas
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Visiting Guédelon is like a journey into the past. The reason is simple. In the forest of Saint Sauveur, a castle is being built, using thirteenth century techniques. The natural site provides them with all the building materials they need: water, stone, earth, sand, and wood. In Guédelon, no excavator, no drill, no electricity, and no internal combustion engine is used. Quarriers, stone hewers, masons, and carpenters work as they would have seven centuries ago, but this time in front of visitors. This lively, building yard with towers, curtains and the keep will spend 25 years in the making. A well-known French site where Reinhard Kungel and his team have been working since 1999, it receives more than 250,000 visitors each year.
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Length: 80 min.
Country: Germany
Language: German, English, French
Producer: Reinhard Kungel, rk-film
Producer website: Reinhard Kungel Film
Distributor: rk-film
Distributor Web site: Reinhard Kungel Film
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In March 2004, one of the world’s last voluntarily isolated groups of hunter-gatherers walk out of the forest in northern Paraguay, fleeing ranchers’ bulldozers. Forming a new village with more settled relatives, they confront the complexities of learning how to survive in a rapidly changing world. This documentary provides an intimate portrait of a divided community and their efforts to chart a future in a context shaped by deforestation, NGO activity, anthropologists and evangelical Christianity. This reflexive video uses the experiences and confusions of a process that remains ultimately opaque to put a human face to questions about “contact,” “indigeneity” and the way certain ideas of “modernity” continue to be presented as the only option for Native peoples in the Gran Chaco and beyond.
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Length: 47 min.
Country: USA
Language: Spanish, Ayoreo, English subtitles
Producer: Lucas Bessire
Producer website: N/A
Distributor: Documentary Educational Resources
Distributor Web site: www.der.org