For 3 years, the Islamic State terrorized Mosul and destroyed priceless archaeological relics. But could salvation lie in the city's past? Three thousand years ago, it was the world's biggest and most powerful city—Nineveh, the capital of the enigmatic Assyrians. Now, archaeologists are unearthing new discoveries, solving the riddles of this civilization and restoring Mosul's pride. How was humanity's first empire forged? What advances allowed them to build a city of over 100,000 people? And could Nineveh be the true location of a lost Wonder of the World—The Hanging Gardens of Babylon?
Screening: Saturday, May 16th, 6:03-6:59 PM, The Shedd Recital Hall
Length: 55 min
Country: UK
Language: Arabic, English
Director(s): Duncan George Bulling
Producer(s): Matias Gaggiotti
Distributor: ZDF Studios GmbH
The Raute people of Nepal describe themselves as Ban Ko Raja, which means “Kings of the Forest.” This endangered nomadic tribe of mountain hunter-gatherers lives in a closed society comprising less than 125 individuals. The Raute, whose culture, traditions and ideals are slowly disappearing, are the last nomadic people of Nepal and one of the last nomadic mountain tribes on earth. Explorer and conservationist Sean Burch was granted unprecedented access to the Raute tribe to obtain this record of their culture, featuring values about sustainability and respect toward one another that we could learn from today.
Screening: Saturday, May 16th, 1:36-2:05 PM, The Shedd Recital Hall
Length: 28 min
Country: USA
Language: Nepali
Director(s): Sean Burch
Producer(s): Sean Burch
Distributor: Khumbu Productions
This is the story of Minoru Hokari, a young Japanese scholar whose interest was caught by the Wave Hill Walk-off strike of Gurindji cattle workers, and the close connection that developed between him and the Gurindji Aboriginal peoples of Australia. Minoru spent many months living with them, studying with Elders, and writing about their understanding of history in an influential book, published in Japan before his untimely death at age 32. This film follows Minoru’s journey of cross-cultural understanding and spiritual transformation—how he was “called” by the land to help the Gurindji tell their story to an international audience.
Screening: Saturday, May 16th, 2:13-3:53 PM, The Shedd Recital Hall
Length: 99 min
Country: Australia
Language: English
Director(s): Andrew Pike, Ann McGrath
Producer(s): Andrew Pike, Ann McGrath
Distributor: Ronin Films
The Republic of Venice, nicknamed “La Serenissima,” was pushed to expand inland for timber in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries when conflict with the Ottoman Empire over the Mediterranean arose. To preserve its precious Venetian, Friulian and Istrian woods for shipbuilding, Venice implemented a series of good land management practices, in turn giving way to a profound change of mentality. The social approach and culture developed around safeguarding this valuable territory mirrors our current environmental sensitivity. The Gold of Venice details those practices and how that mentality has reached our modern society.
Screening: Sunday, May 17th, 11:46 AM -12:43 PM, The Shedd Recital Hall
Length: 56 min
Country: Italy
Language: Italian
Director(s): Nicola Pittarello
Producer(s): Roberto Dall'Angelo
Distributor: S.D. Cinematografica
In this personal and thought-provoking documentary, journalist and author Bruce Clark retraces his lifelong connection with Greece and the Parthenon, reflecting on how ancient democratic ideals and aesthetic brilliance continue to shape our understanding of Western culture. With a blend of intellectual inquiry and emotional resonance, From Cambridge with Love explores how the sculptures, born from the spirit of Classical Athens, embody not just technical mastery but a profound civic vision. Shot in Cambridge and around the Acropolis in Athens, the film brings together a distinguished cast of voices—including classicists Paul Cartledge, Edith Hall and Janet Suzman, alongside acclaimed sculptor Helaine Blumenfeld—to examine the legacy of the Parthenon sculptures and the debates surrounding their rightful home.
Screening: Sunday, May 17th, 2:51-3:18 PM, The Shedd Recital Hall
Length: 27 min
Country: Greece
Language: English
Director(s): Bruce Clark
Producer(s): Leonidas Liambeys
Distributor: Leonidas Liambeys
In east-central China, archaeologists are hard at work excavating the ancient imperial city of Fengyang, rediscovered by chance over 50 years ago. This site, never excavated before now, contains evidence of a gigantic city, even more imposing than the famous Imperial City of Beijing. What did it look like, when and how was it built and why and how did it fall? Researchers are plunging into the heart of this mysterious site to answer these questions and unravel the secrets of this forgotten city, witness to a lost imperial past.
Screening: Sunday, May 17th, 1:00-2:32 PM, The Shedd Recital Hall
Length: 91 min
Country: China, France
Language: Chinese, English
Director(s): Stéphane Begoin
Producer(s): Dominique Barneaud, Liu Yan
Distributor: Arte France, LGI Media
eXpedition is a Dutch youth documentary series about archaeology, history and culture. In this episode, an archaeologist and a YouTuber embark on a journey to delve into the dark past of Nijenborgh Castle in Weert—a place of power, betrayal and bloody conflict during the Eighty Years’ War. With unexpected archaeological discoveries, a revealing detail on a centuries-old painting, and a visit to Museum W, they unravel, step by step, who Count Van Horne was, why he was beheaded, and the brutal context around the mass grave on the castle grounds.
Screening: Saturday, May 16th, 5:46-6:03 PM, The Shedd Recital Hall
Length: 16 min
Country: Netherlands
Language: Dutch
Director(s): Robin Peeters
Producer(s): Robin Peeters, Kris Förster
Distributor: Mosasaurus Film Productions
The Colosseum Archaeological Park has become a natural habitat for wildlife, transformed into a unique ecosystem where humanity has vanished, leaving only the traces of its past glory in colossal ruins and magnificent monuments. When tourists depart, the humans who enter are biologists and naturalists monitoring the species within—some particularly rare and difficult to observe. The temples, columns, majestic palaces, triumphal arches, and sacred fountains of the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill now serve as cliffs, rocky walls, dens, ponds, nests, and hideouts. This enormous ecological niche sustains birds, mammals, amphibians, reptiles, insects, and invertebrates that have developed unique adaptations to what remains of the ancient city. The sole human inhabitants, nuns and friars living in ancient convents atop the Palatine, offer perspective on the relationship between humanity and nature.
Screening: Sunday, May 17th, 4:51-6:27 PM, The Shedd Recital Hall
Length: 95 min
Country: Italy
Language: Italian
Director(s): Luca Lancise, Marco Gentili
Producer(s): Roberto Pisoni
Distributor: Ga&A
Ea depicts the living legacy of Keʻeaumoku Kapu, a Kanaka ʻŌiwi (Native Hawaiian) community leader, activist, and caretaker of Maui’s Cultural Center. The Kapu family gives voice to a multi-generational struggle to perpetuate native land and water management practices, stifled for over a century by plantation agriculture, the U.S.-backed overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom, militourism and real estate development. Archival and contemporary projections of songs, chants, animations, digital cartography, field recordings, legal texts, and interviews offer a reflection on Kapuʻs nearly 20-year battle—in and out of the U.S. court system—to reclaim his ancestral land in Kauaʻula valley. Ea is a testament to the resilience of one family, whose efforts serve as guidance for their community, as well as future generations pursuing land and water rights across the Hawaiian archipelago.
Screening: Saturday, May 16th, 11:28 AM-12:38 PM, The Shedd Recital Hall
Length: 70 min
Country: USA
Language: English, Hawaiian
Director(s): Noah Keone Viernes, Sancia MIala Shiba Nash
Producer(s): Noah Keone Viernes, Lance Collins
Distributor: NBWMBF
Erika, a young archaeologist, refuses to accept the sale of the last column of the Temple of Hera Lacinia to a wealthy foreign buyer. To Erika, the column is not just an archaeological relic: it is a symbol deeply rooted in the land, in her blood, and in her family. It is the last visible trace of a civilization—and also a reflection of a personal identity that refuses to be forgotten. In a landscape marked by neglect and silence, with the help of a plan inherited from her father—a former tomb raider—she decides to carry out a bold and poetic act: to steal the column
Screening: Friday, May 15th, 8:31-8:48 PM, The Shedd Recital Hall
Length: 16 min
Country: Italy
Language: Italian
Director(s): Antonio Cofano
Producer(s): Antonio Cofano,Yellow SRL
Distributor: Looking Glass Media
This is a lyrical and intimate documentary that traces the life and spiritual legacy of Ben Cloud, revered medicine chief of the Apsáalooke Nation, which is also known as the Crow, and central figure in the sacred Sun Dance tradition. Far more than a portrait, the film becomes a living archive — a ceremonial act in itself — offering rare access to the inner world of the Apsáalooke as they carry ancient ritual into the twenty-first century. Merging personal memory with cultural transmission, it departs from conventional documentary form, embodying the quiet power and profound mystery of a spiritual practice rooted in land, lineage and the unseen.
Screening: Sunday, May 17th, 10:37-11:08 AM, The Shedd Recital Hall
Length: 30 min
Country: USA
Language: English
Director(s): Robin Starbuck
Producer(s): Ben Cloud
Distributor: n/a