Grades 5 - 12, College, Adults
Directed by Anna Sofaer
Produced by Anna Sofaer
DVD Purchase $295, Rent $95
US Release Date: 2024
Copyright Date: 2024
DVD ISBN: 1-961192-21-7
Subjects
American Studies
Anthropology
Archaeoastronomy
Archaeology
Art/Architecture
Astronomy
History of Science
Humanities
Indigenous Peoples
Native Americans
Physical Science
Religion
Social Psychology
Social Studies
Western US
Mysteries Beyond Chaco Canyon
The Ancestral Puebloan culture's complex astronomy reveals a legacy of scientific observation and a spiritual tradition, with its powerful impact on the American Southwest.
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"This film is a journey not only through history but through the very soul of a land and its people." Robert Redford |
WRITTEN ON THE LANDSCAPE: Mysteries Beyond Chaco Canyon conveys to viewers the brilliant achievements of the Chaco civilization—many of which are in grave danger today. This new one-hour documentary reveals the astounding reach of the Chacoans across a region of the American southwest nearly twice the size of Ireland. Without modern tools, wheel or beast of burden, these ancient people built ceremonial Great Houses and connected them to places of spiritual power with massive "roads," remarkably straight and as wide as modern two lane streets. The Chacoans' feats have been long obscured in a fragile desert environment -- only now to be recovered through beautiful aerial footage and with the new technology of LiDAR (aerial laser scanning) revealing the true expanse of the Chacoans' complex world.
Filmmakers Anna Sofaer and Christopher Beaver take viewers on an exciting exploration of the minds and inspirations of this remarkable culture driven by religion and cosmology. The people emerge from a thousand years ago through new insights of archaeologists, and the words of descendant Pueblo people who hold knowledge of their ancestors to this day.
WRITTEN ON THE LANDSCAPE is the third in a series of films on the Chacoan people by Anna Sofaer who came across the Sun Dagger in 1977 and has spent the rest of her life exploring its significance. The previous films, The Sun Dagger and The Mystery of Chaco Canyon , were narrated by Robert Redford and produced by The Solstice Project for PBS.
Reviews
"This film is a journey not only through history but through the very soul of a land and its people."
Robert Redford
"We have no idea how their thinking went, unless you look at the astronomy."
Phillip Tuwaletstiwa, Hopi
"This visually arresting film presents emerging and, in many ways, revolutionary ideas about Chaco Canyon. Diverse voices contemplate relationships between places, human creations, the earth and the sky, revealing the depth and insight of indigenous philosophy and the fundamental dialog between knowledge and power. Stunning footage and ingenious animations convey these points in accessible and inspiring ways. At once grand and intimate, Written on the Landscape conveys the poetry, wisdom and experience of the Chaco World for the benefit of people today, and tomorrow."
Scott Ortman, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Director, Center for Collaborative Synthesis in Archaeology, University of Colorado-Boulder
"The Solstice Project and its partners help us understand how 'royalty' at Chaco Canyon designed their world, mirroring the heavens and echoing Mesoamerica. And how events at Chaco - monumental but problematic - resonate among today's Chaco's descendants, Pueblo peoples."
Stephen H. Lekson, Curator emeritus of Archaeology, University of Colorado Museum of Natural History