In 1872, in the cave of Cavillon in northern Italy, archaeologist Émile Rivière unearthed an apparently very old human skeleton, a discovery that changed the modern image of prehistoric men and women. This documentary is an exploration that takes us from the burial site in northern Italy to France and Russia and shows us one of the latest archaeological discoveries, that of the Lady of Cavillon. The burial, organized in an exceptional way, is the common thread to investigate the identity of these buried individuals dated around 25,000 years old. Little known to the general public, these Paleolithic burial sites reveal exceptional ornaments and raise the question: who were these individuals, buried with such care?
Length: 52 mins.
Country: France
Language: French with English Subtitles
Director: Pauline Coste
Producer(s): Camille Monin, Jan Vasak, Jakub Kostal
Distributor: Aude Gruyer
Could the tomb of the famous 16th century French Renaissance philosopher, humanist and writer, Michel de Montaigne, have been found in the reserves of the Musée d'Aquitaine, located in the heart of the city of Bordeaux? Human remains were discovered in the basement where Montaigne is long thought to have been buried after his death in 1592. A church once stood on the grounds where the museum is now. However, the site saw many changes in the centuries that followed, leaving later generations to wonder if the philosopher’s body was actually interred there. This film will immerse the audience in an extraordinary archaeological investigation, where archaeologists and historians alike work hand-in-hand to unravel the mystery of a burial more than 500 years old.
Length: 52 mins.
Country: France
Language: French with English Subtitles
Director: Pauline Coste
Producer(s): Camille Monin, Jan Vasak
Distributor: Véronique Faucher
This is a documentary film that follows the six-year journey of Los Angeles County Museum of Art curators, Diana Magaloni and Julia Burtenshaw, in researching, developing, and installing “The Portable Universe / El Universo en tus Manos,” about the prehistoric art of the Tairona people of Colombia. Among many topics, the documentary features scenes of breathtaking landscapes and archaeological sites. It also includes behind-the-scenes footage from the preparation of the exhibition, including new initiatives around museum stewardship of Indigenous works. The series allows us to be transparent about how the team facilitated a collaborative process with the Arhuaco community in Colombia, and with curators at different institutions, which kept the spirit of collaboration alive, even in the way the exhibition was installed.
Length: 108 mins.
Country: USA
Language: English, Spanish w/ English subtitles
Director(s): Alexa Oona Schulz, Agnes Stauber
Producer(s): Agnes Stauber
Distributor: N/A
In 1907, the Tumuk Humak Expedition took place under the leadership of Claudius de Goeje, my grandfather's uncle. The expedition was intended to map the rainforest of southern Suriname. During the trip, Claudius also made the first contacts with the Wayana, an indigenous people of Suriname. One hundred years later, I'm now trekking through the jungle looking for the Wayana, to share a piece of their history with them. In an old archive, I found an anthropological film by Claudius that he made in 1937 about the Wayana. Thus inspired, I set out with projector, screen and generator, to show them the film in the middle of the jungle, and to explore the consequences of this early 20th century colonial expedition.
Length: 41 mins.
Country: Netherlands
Language:
Director: Freek de Goeje
Producer(s): Freek de Goeje
Distributor: Freek de Goeje
Over the years, Hollywood has forged the image of pirates through its films, but does it correspond to reality or is it all a fabrication? In our film, thanks to new underwater surveys and land-based research in Mauritius and Madagascar, as well as discoveries in archives and museums in France, Spain and England, an international research group of archaeologists and historians is drawing a new portrait of the world of 17th-century piracy in the Indian Ocean. Come travel along with us as we explore “The True Story of Pirates.”
Length: 52 mins.
Country: France
Language: English, French w/ English dubbing
Director: Stéphane Bégoin
Producer(s): Valérie Guerin
Distributor: Terranoa
This is a story about us – Homo sapiens. Where do we come from and where are we headed?
Our film takes place in Turkana, Kenya, a unique place known as the Cradle of Humankind, famous for discoveries of prehistoric human origins. The area nowadays is inhabited by the indigenous pastoral tribe called Daasanach. A Spanish ethnoecologist, Álvaro Fernández-Llamazares, arrives in Turkana to study the relationship between humans and nature. Alvaro, impressed by traditional fables and animal stories of the tribe, begins to collect them for the first ever Daasanach language storybook. So starts a fascinating story from the Cradle of Humankind, a story about the nomadic people’s survival struggle, poaching, nature reserve rangers, tribal wars over scarce resources, and prehistoric fossils. When the indigenous and global worlds collide, the values of wildlife and nature are revealed for both.
Length: 75 mins.
Country: Finland
Language: English
Director: Iiris Härmä
Producer(s): Visa Koiso-Kanttila
Distributor: The Finnish Film Foundation
The great Catalan architect Gaudi left us a spectacular work and an unfinished creation: the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. This is an immense, unfathomable cathedral project, whose rules and spirit must be understood in order to be completed. A challenge that has occupied his successors for more than a century, it is now approaching its end. Over the last fifteen years, the construction site has been relaunched, notably around the erection of ten additional spires that dominate the building. This work allows us to dive back into the creative process of Gaudi by restoring his sources of inspiration, and his obsessions, through fiction and thanks to 3D technologies. Many obstacles remain and need to be overcome if the work is to be completed in 2026, the date of Gaudi's centenary.
Length: 52 mins.
Country: France
Language: English, French, Spanish, w/ English subtitles
Director: Marc Jampolsky
Producer(s): Maya Lussier-Seguin
Distributor: Terranoa
Despite a historical legacy that dealt the dark cards of slavery, holocaust and poverty, music has always been the winning hand for Gypsy survival. From the deserts of Rajasthan to the ghettos of Bucharest, “Run Raven Run” explores the resounding pain and pleasure that emanates from the unvanquished soul of Gypsy music. According to the film’s director, this is a groundbreaking music documentary about the past and present of Roma music. But much more than that, the film also depicts how venerable traditions are turned upside down by new movements being spawned inside inaccessible ghettos. It shows the rise of youth culture to redefine outdated values of society.
Length: 101 mins.
Country: USA
Language: English, Romanian w/ English subtitles
Director: Michael Rainin
Producer(s): Michael Rainin
Distributor: Rainpix, Inc.
In February 2021, teams from the Archaeological Park of Pompeii made an exceptional discovery: an astoundingly well preserved, nearly intact, Roman ceremonial chariot was unearthed in the northern section of the site. To date, this ornate chariot is the first of its kind to be discovered. Alongside the many scientists who took part in the campaign to restore the chariot, we return to ancient Rome in order to put the chariot in context. What could have been its use? How may vehicles have evolved during this time? What would traffic have looked like in the streets of Pompeii? Was owning a chariot, and horses, still a sign of social prestige? Don’t miss this investigation. Travel through time with us as we try to unravel the mysteries of this discovery.
Length: 52 mins.
Country: France
Language: English, French w/ English subtitles
Director: Thomas Marlier
Producer(s): STÉPHANE MILLIÈRE
Distributor: Gedeon Programmes
This animated film primarily juxtaposes vibrant imagery of ancient art and object-making with modern technological devices and is predominantly drawn on 35-mm film. The visuals in this film include imagery of ancient material culture, such as cave paintings, ancient pottery and female fertility figures. All are rapidly shown alongside modern communication devices and weapons, such as missiles. Each individual category of material culture is rendered in modern, saturated colors, such as neon pink and rich cobalt blue, and is activated through replacement animation. With this method, the individual objects undulate, allowing the quintessential idea of the objects’ platonic forms to become juxtaposed with the distinct shapes of the individual pieces in the sequence.
Length: 4 mins.
Country: USA
Language: N/A
Director: Christine Alexa Banna
Producer(s): Christine Alexa Banna
Distributor: N/A
The Spanish Civil War, and the subsequent regime of Francisco Franco, left a legacy of terror: tens of thousands of murdered civilians, buried anonymously and lost to oblivion. About 85 years on, why dig up one of Europe’s largest mass graves and the thousands of victims of Franco’s regime within it? In 2020, the mass grave of Pico Reja, which is estimated to entomb more than 2000 civilian victims of Franco’s repression, remained closed in the Seville cemetery. In this film, the opening of this mass grave takes us through its own history—even uncovering new, undocumented facts.
Length: 93 mins.
Country: Spain
Language: Spanish with English Subtitles
Director: Remedios Malvárez
Producer(s): Remedios Malvarez / Arturo Andújar
Distributor: Producciones Singulares