The Lost Gold of Corsica is the story of arguably the most important treasure ever found: hundreds of rare coins, a dish and even a statue weighing thirty-two kilograms—all made of solid gold. From the wreck of a Roman ship dated to the third century AD, these objects pass through obscure networks of corrupted numismatists and organized crime to the international market, where they fetch astronomical prices. Using user-generated archival footage, we follow the story through twenty years of cat-and-mouse among law enforcement, smuggler and scientist.
Screening time: Saturday, 14 May, 11:38 am (Session 3, The Shedd Recital Hall)
Length: 52 min.
Country: France
Language: English
Producer: CONSTANCE FILMS ET ARTE FRANCE
Awards/Selections:
None
The conflict over the ancient temple of Preah Vihear illuminates the current political and cultural tensions between Cambodia and Thailand. In Cambodia, it shows “spirit warriors” of an ancient general being mobilized through trance to defend the country. In Thailand, the Red Shirts and the Yellow Shirts are filmed in street demonstrations and in the fierce fighting that periodically erupts in the aftermath. The film includes the most recent Thai military coup and concludes by examining the impact of this seizure of power on issues along the border.
Screening time: Thursday, 12 May, 8:13 pm (Broadway Metro)
Length: 51 min.
Country: USA
Language: English
Director: David Feingold
Distributor: DER
Awards/Selections:
None
If you look at any part of the British landscape and dig down, studying it in detail, you’ll find that people have lived in that landscape for tens of thousand of years. Landscapes of Power is about the archaeological excavations carried out in advance of the development of Hinkley Point C nuclear power station in West Somerset, England. It captures the whole story of the archaeology of the area, from prehistoric settlement remains and evidence of Iron Age and Roman farming practices to the discovery of an important Dark Age cemetery.
Screening time: Thursday, 12 May, 7:20 pm (Session 1, The Shedd Recital Hall)
Length: 34 min.
Country: UK
Language: English
Director: Justin Owen
Producer: Justin Owen
Awards/Selections:
The Film was screened at the Museum of Somerset, January 2015.
When someone with a metal detector discovers a lead coffin in a field near Ilchester in Somerset, England, the local police call in the archaeologists from South West Heritage Trust to investigate. The Lady in Lead follows the story of these archeologists, who work with a small town to uncover more about the life and death of a woman who lived there over fifteen hundred years ago. Scientists endeavor to tell the community of Ilchester more about the historical significance of their town by careful examination of the ancient burial site.
Screening time: Sunday, 15 May, 3:33 pm (Session 7, The Shedd Recital Hall)
Length: 10 min.
Country: UK
Language: English
Director: Justin Owen
Producer: Justin Owen
Distributor: Blystone Films
Awards/Selections:
Cinarchea: International Archaeology Film and Art Festival, Kiel, Germany, October 2015.
International Review of Archaeological Cinema, Rovereto, Italy, November 2015.
German retired teacher and historian Otmar Weber introduces us to a little known part of the German-French borderlands known as the Wasgau, where rural Jewish populations lived and thrived for 300 years until National Socialism drove them out in the 1930s. Through interviews and personal accounts, we discover who these German Jewish families were, what is left behind from their lives and where they went. The Jewish Cemetery is seen and told in the seldom visited hinterlands of an old Europe that has changed remarkably little.
Screening time: Saturday, 14 May, 1:30 pm (Session 4, The Shedd Recital Hall)
Length: 50 min.
Country: Germany
Language: German with English subtitles
Director: Peter Blystone
Producer: Peter Blystone
Distributor: Blystone Films
Awards/Selections:
A German version was screened at the Dahn City Hall in Dahn, Germany, November 9, 2014.
Screened at the 4e’me edition Des Ateliers Des Loupes, Maison Bleue des Ormes, in Les Ormes, France, June 13, 2015.
This documentary follows a unique archaeological collaboration between university-trained scientists and Namibian game hunters. The scientists face the challenge of bringing meaning to tracks left during the last Ice Age in a number of caves in the southwest of France. For the first time, they are opting not to rely completely on the research methods of Western science. They have sought assistance from the San, the best trackers in Southern Africa, to read these footprints to the world and tell the story of how our ancestors lived.
Screening time: Friday, 13 May , 8:46 pm (Session 2, The Shedd Recital Hall)
Length: 99 min.
Country: Germany
Language: English
Director: Sylvia Strasser
Producer: PAOLO-Film in Cooperation with ARTE/ZDF
Producer Web site: http://www.paolo-film.de
Distributor: Sylvia Strasser
Distributor Web site: http://www.paolo-film.de
Awards/Selections:
None
The survival of the immense dome of Hagia Sophia and the marvelous works it contains is a recurring miracle. Its future is uncertain: experts have forecast another large earthquake sometime in the next twenty years and political and religious tensions over its dual historical nature have hampered renovation efforts. An international team of architects, seismologists and engineers are working to discover the secrets of the building’s extraordinary resistance to earthquakes. By analyzing the strengths of the building, they hope to discover any hidden weaknesses and to gain the information necessary to save it.
Screening time: Saturday, 14 May, 10:10 am (Session 3, The Shedd Recital Hall)
Length: 88 min.
Country: France, USA
Language: English
Director: Oliver Julien
Producer: Valerie Abita
Distributor: ZED
Distributor Web site: http://www.zed.fr
Awards/Selections:
None
Dropping into a hidden chamber deep in a South African cave, we explore an unprecedented trove of over 1500 ancient human bones that hold the potential to rewrite the story of our origins. They may help fill a crucial gap in the fossil record and tell us how Homo, the human family, emerged from ape-like ancestors like the famous Lucy. Join NOVA on the treacherous descent into this cave of spectacular and enigmatic finds and discover their starling implications for the saga of what makes us human.
Screening time: Sunday, 15 May, 10:40 am (Session 6, The Shedd Recital Hall)
Length: 113 min.
Country: USA
Language: English
Director: Graham Townsley
Producer: Graham Townsley
A Production of NOVA and National Geographic Studios for WGBH Boston
Producer Web site: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/
http://press.nationalgeographic.com/tag/national-geographic-studios/
Distributor: FOX International Content Sales
Distributor Web site: http://ficcontentsales.com/
Awards/Selections:
PBS Broadcast, September, 2015.
Chavin de Huantar is a mysterious archaeological site that defines the pre-Incan religious civilization that built it. It is the source of their civilization, our understanding of their religion and has lent its name, Chavin, to its builders. By careful study of artifacts and architecture, Dr. John Rick of Stanford University and archaeologist Dr. Luis Lembreras make startling discoveries about the structure of the Chavin’s lives. Glimpses of the past coalesce into a picture of these mysterious people in The Theater of the World Beyond.
Screening time: Sunday, 15 May, 2:30 pm (Session 7, The Shedd Recital Hall)
Length: 53 min.
Country: Peru and Spain
Language: English
Director: Jose Manuel Novoa
Producer: Jose Maria Morales, Marco Aveggio
Producer Web site: http://www.wanda.es
Distributor: Wanda Films
Distributor Web site: http://www.wanda.es
Awards/Selections:
None
This film covers the origins and development of the Grand Bazaar of Tehran, comprising over 10 km in several main corridors, from its very beginning to the present. It makes use of the descriptions of some of the first European visitors in examining how the Bazaar changed over time. Dating at least to the medieval period, the Bazaar reflects the position of Tehran as key center of commerce over many centuries. See in this documentary a study of the architecture, culture and history of Iranian bazaars as reflected in the Bazaar of Tehran.
Screening time: Sunday, 15 May, 12:58 pm (Session 6, The Shedd Recital Hall)
Length: 42 min.
Country: Iran
Language: Farsi with English subtitles
Director: Reza Khanlari
Producer: Reza Khanlari/DEFC
Producer Web site: http://www.defc.ir/en/
Distributor: The Documentary and Experimental Film Center (DEFC)
Distributor Web site: http://www.defc.ir/en/
Awards/Selections:
None