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<DIV>To those of you interested in great films about cultural heritage: This
announcement gives you all the scoop on our upcoming <EM>ArchaeologyFest Film
Series: Best of 2009</EM>, to be held over the next two weekends at Central
Oregon Community College in Room 0155 of the Boyle Education Center.
Please come and see these super films and help support <STRONG><EM>The
Archaeology Channel</EM></STRONG> International Film and Video Festival.
This mini-Festival event presents the best films from TAC Festival 2009, which
took place this past May at the Hult Center in downtown Eugene. For
this international competition, we received 87 films from 25 countries.
Many of you didn't get a chance to see all the great films we showed
there! But now you can see what you missed. Please see the
announcement just below.
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Please share this announcement widely in your networks to help us fill the
room. You can find the information also, and even see clips for
the films, through a link at <A href="http://www.archaeologychannel.org/content/BendSeries2009.shtml">http://www.archaeologychannel.org/content/BendSeries2009.shtml</A><A title=http://www.archaeologychannel.org/content/minifestival.shtml href="http://www.archaeologychannel.org/content/minifestival.shtml"></A>.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Thanks! <BR> <BR>Rick Pettigrew<BR>Archaeological Legacy
Institute<BR><A title=http://www.archaeologychannel.org/ href="http://www.archaeologychannel.org/">www.archaeologychannel.org</A></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>********************************************************************************************************</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV align=center><FONT size=5>ArchaeologyFest Film Series: Best of
2009</FONT><BR><FONT size=4>A benefit for <EM><STRONG>The Archaeology
Channel<BR></STRONG></EM>International Film and Video Festival</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV align=center><FONT size=2>Central Oregon Community College<BR>Room 0155 of
the Boyle Education Center<BR>February 19/20 & 26/27, 2010</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Doors open at 7 pm and programs begin at 7:30 pm on dates indicated.
Admission $6. Tickets at the door. These are the best films from the
2009 edition of TAC Festival. (The 2010 edition of TAC Festival takes
place at Eugene’s Soreng Theater, Hult Center for the Performing Arts, May 18-22
[see bottom].)</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><BR>Program A: Friday, February 19:</DIV>
<DIV><BR> • <EM>The Antikythera Mechanism:
Decoding an Ancient Greek Mystery</EM> (UK) 14 min.<BR> More than a hundred
years ago, sponge divers discovered the remains of an extraordinarily
sophisticated astronomical device off the small Greek island of
Antikythera. Previously identified as an astronomical calculating machine
used to predict eclipses and to set the timing of the Olympic Games, it shows
the ancient Greeks had a higher level of technology hundreds of years earlier
than was previously accepted. In 2006 a research team from the Antikythera
Mechanism Research Project published a paper proposing a radical new model of
how the Mechanism worked. Using the latest X-ray and imaging technologies
and 3D animations developed from the data, revealing its remarkable complexity,
Don Unwin, master instrument maker, sets out to build a working model in
bronze. (Special Mention by Jury; Honorable Mention for Animation by Jury;
Best Special Effects by Jury) </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> • <EM>Treasures of the Fitzwilliam
Museum</EM> (UK) 26 min. <BR> 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.
(Honorable Mention for Narration, Cinematography and Music by
Jury)<BR> <BR> • <EM>Uncle
Sem and the Bosnian Dream</EM> (Italy) 52 min.<BR> In Visoko, a far-flung
town in the heart of Bosnia, there are two hills that look like pyramids.
More than two years ago, Semir Osmanagic, an American businessman originally
from Bosnia, arrived in this small village claiming that the hills surrounding
the town were actually covering pyramids that are thousands of years old, the
last evidence of the legendary historic greatness of Bosnia. From that
moment, life in Visoko was never the same. And Semir has become a
celebrity. A true national hero. Semir and his pyramids arrived just
in time. Bosnia was more in need than ever of a great man and a great
tradition that could give importance to a country deeply wounded and martyred by
war. This film is a human comedy that, between its light and at times
bitter tones, recounts a year in the life of this microcosm just after the
pyramid discovery. (Special Mention by Jury; Honorable Mention for Script
by Jury)</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><BR>Program B: Saturday, February 20:</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> • <EM>From Grief and Joy We Sing</EM>
(USA) 53 min.<BR> The Quechua community of Q’eros in the Andes of southeast
Peru is renowned for traditional music, weaving, and spiritual rituals that many
other Andean communities no longer practice. Through personal accounts,
this documentary shows the annual cycle of Q’eros musical rituals, how Q’eros
people use music to express grief and joy, and how an indigenous people adapt to
urban society. (Special Mention by Jury; Honorable Mention for Script and
Most Inspirational by Jury)</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> • <EM>The Twilight of the Celts</EM>
(Switzerland) 52 min.<BR> French-speaking Switzerland is the scene of an
extraordinary discovery. On Mormont Hill, diggers have unearthed a huge
Celtic sanctuary, the largest known to date. Two thousand years ago, the
Helvetians dug hundreds of shafts in this isolated spot to deposit offerings to
their gods: objects, animals, and fragments of human bodies. The discovery
enables archaeologists to inquire into the religious practices of Swiss
ancestors. Rituals, sacrifices and Druids: what do we know, or think we
know, about the remarkable Celtic civilization? In an attempt to answer
this question, this thriller-like film follows the excavations of the site and
the archaeologists’ work step by step. Sudden new discoveries immerse us
in a mysterious world transitional between the imaginative and the real. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Program C: Friday, February 26:</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> • <EM>Borneo: The Memory of Caves</EM>
(France) 52 min.<BR> In this exceptional scientific adventure up rivers in
the heart of the wild tropical rainforest of Borneo, the authors discover an
unexpected rock art site more than 10,000 years old during some twelve
expeditions to remote caves. Conducted by Luc-Henri Fage, speleologist and
photographer; Jean-Michel Chazine, archaeologist; and Pindi Setiawan, their
Indonesian partner from the Bandung Institute of Technology; this research
unveils a forgotten culture, lost within remote labyrinthine limestone
peaks, which sheds new light on Southeast Asian prehistory. (Honorable Mention
for Music by Jury; Honorable Mention in Audience Favorite competition)</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> • <EM>The Last Romans</EM> (Belgium) 52
min.<BR> At the beginning of the Fifth 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 Seventh 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.
(Honorable Mention for Best Film, Animation, and Script by Jury; Honorable
Mention in Audience Favorite competition) </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><BR>Program D: Saturday, February 27:</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> • <EM>Breaking the Maya Code</EM> (USA)
116 min.<BR> The complex and beautiful Maya
hieroglyphic script was, until recently, the world’s last major
un-deciphered writing system. Breaking the Maya Code is the story of the
200 year struggle, often hampered by misconceptions and rivalries, that has
ultimately unlocked the secrets of one of mankind’s great civilizations and
re-connected the modern Maya with their extraordinary past. It’s an epic
tale that leads from the jungles of Guatemala to the snows of Russia, from
ancient Maya temples to the dusty libraries of Dresden and Madrid. The
film is based on the book of the same title by Michael Coe, called by the NY
Times “one of the great stories of twentieth century scientific discovery.”
(Best Film, Animation, Script, Music, and Inspiration by Jury; Honorable Mention
for Narration, Special Effects, and Cinematography by Jury; Audience Favorite by
Festival Audience)</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><U>TAC Festival 2010 Returns to the Soreng Theater</U></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>ALI announces the next edition of <EM><STRONG>The Archaeology
Channel</STRONG></EM> International Film and Video Festival, May 18-22, 2010, in
the Soreng Theater at the Hult Center for the Performing Arts in downtown
Eugene, Oregon. TAC Festival will bring to Oregon the world’s best films
on archaeology, ancient cultures, and the world of indigenous
peoples. Exactly 100 films from 32 countries have been submitted for
the 2010 competition. Please join us in welcoming to Eugene the people of
the world for this cinematic celebration of the human cultural heritage.
Details at <A title=http://www.archaeologychannel.org/content/TACfestival.shtml href="http://www.archaeologychannel.org/content/TACfestival.shtml">http://www.archaeologychannel.org/content/TACfestival.shtml</A>.</DIV></DIV></DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>