Viewers of this film will enjoy a unique experience by exploring art masterpieces and archaeological sites in the most important treasury of Classical Western archaeology. The myths of Ancient Greece re-emerge in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples. Previously unseen finds and epochal restorations take us back to daily life in Pompeii and Herculaneum. Long-awaited exhibitions, ancient mosaics, and stunning artworks illustrate central episodes in Western Civilization and offer a unique key for interpreting our present time. A journey traveling between past and present customs and traditions encourages the viewer to reflect on where we stand in the pages of history.
Length: 52 mins.
Country: Italy
Language: Italian with English subtitles
Director: Laura Pintus
Producer(s): Tg2 (website)
Distributor: Rai Radiotelevisione Italiana
The Bayeux Tapestry, still preserved in Normandy, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This immense embroidery, nearly 70 meters long, recounts the invasion of England in 1066 by William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy. The film tells a remarkable odyssey through a period of significant upheavals in history: the early Middle Ages and the advent of the feudal system in Europe, which marked the end of the Age of Vikings. The embroidery amounts to an exceptional archive of these obscure times with its multitude of characters, boats, horses, and monuments. Beyond that, the problem that researchers have long faced is precisely the uniqueness of this chronicle. In the absence of other documents of comparable scope, can we say that the Tapestry is a reliable witness to these remote times?
Length: 90 mins.
Country: France
Language: French with English subtitles
Director: Alexis De Favitski
Producer(s): Antoine Bamas - La compagnie des taxi brousse (website)
Distributor: Louis Bernard - Taxi Rights
Length: 20 mins.
Country: Brazil
Language: Tukano with English Subtitles
Director: Rita de Cácia, Oenning da Silva, Kurt Shaw
Producer(s): Kurt Gillam Shaw
Distributor: Usina da I
D’Artagnan, the blazing hero out of Alexandre Dumas’ iconic romantic historical drama, “The Three Musketeers,” and his world-renowned motto, “All for one and one for all,” is widely known. Not as widely known is that, behind this adventurous hero from late 19th-century popular literature, hides a real-life character: Charles de Batz de Castelmore. As a tribute to Dumas—who died 150 years ago—this film confronts fiction and history by revealing the prolific life of this impetuous Gascon, whose adventures inspired the legend of cloak and sword.
Length: 53 mins.
Country: France
Language: English
Director: Augustin Viatte
Producer(s): GEDEON Programmes (website)
Distributor: TERRANOA
The Colosseum team faces the biggest challenge of their career: a race against time to prepare for reopening after being in lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In fifty minutes, with your eyes glued to the big screen, you will be enamored by the breathtaking images of one of the most visited monuments in the world. Throughout this film, you will encounter archaeologists, restorers, workers, custodians, and support staff. All of them never abandoned the Colosseum, even in the most trying and challenging moment of its two-millennium history. Where one used to see thousands of visitors daily, what remained was a silence, unlike anything this environment had seen before. In advance of the site’s reopening, this family of colleagues must build a new way to visit one of the most famous monuments in the world.
Length: 52 mins.
Country: Italy
Language: Italian with English subtitles
Director: Luca Lancise, Davide Morabito
Producer(s): Luca Lancise, Davide Morabito
Distributor: Davide Morabito
In recounting how the most famous Roman leader rose to power, the standard narrative about Caesar’s conquest of Gaul and its Celtic people—his steppingstone to the control of Rome—becomes unraveled. For centuries, all we knew about Caesar’s great battles in Gaul was limited to writings from the Roman general himself. Now, archaeological excavations reveal the reality of the Celtic people he fought, the remarkable story of their rebellion against Roman invasion, and the dramatic battle that would take Caesar to the brink of defeat.
Length: 84 mins.
Country: France
Language: English
Director: Eric Maillebiau, Alain Brunard, Claire Benhaim, Gwyn Williams
Producer(s): Fabrice Frank
Distributor: ITV
A Minnesota woman searches for the place and people her grandmother left behind. The quest takes her to the Burren: a beautiful, windswept region of County Clare, Ireland. There, she finds a clan—and its medieval legacy—scattered and lost during some of the most challenging periods in Irish history. This documentary film uncovers the distant past through the vibrant, present-day community of the Burren. It is not the Ireland of gravestones and faded records that this film offers, but the thrill that comes with reknitting centuries-old Irish connections among the living.
Length: 56 mins.
Country: USA
Language: English
Director: Rita Dravern
Producer(s): Rita Dravern
Film Website: https://burrengirldoc.com/
For the first time, archaeologists worldwide come together in search of sculpted funerary portraits from Palmyra disseminated around the world to recount the story of the ancient city in a way that has never been done before: through the faces of the city’s inhabitants. Exploring the inner secrets of these sculptures reveals the exceptional nature of this legendary city and its multicultural identity. A key to understanding the fascination the city has exerted for centuries lies in the fact that Palmyra has always aroused curiosity and has always been the source of countless powerful stories and images.
Length: 83 mins.
Country: France
Language: French with English Subtitles
Director: Meyar Al Roumi
Producer(s): Laure Bernard
Distributor: UN FILM À LA PATTE