Written on the Landscape: Mysteries Beyond Chaco Canyon

From Bullfrog Films

Directed by Anna Sofaer

58 minutes / Color
Closed Captioned
Release: 2024

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 one-hour documentary reveals the astounding reach of the Chacoans across 70,000 square miles of the American Southwest. 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. Inspired engineers and laborers achieved feats equal to the other archaeological wonders of the ancient world. But those of the Chacoans 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 Chacoan's 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. As scholars of the sky, they made their center at Chaco Canyon, a place that joined the cycles of the sun and moon and unified the people in a huge reach across one of the most challenging environments of the world. The people emerge from a thousand years ago through new insights of archaeologists, the words of descendent Pueblo people who hold knowledge of their ancestors to this day, and the Navajo inhabitants of the region. This same capability to be deeply attuned with the natural environment is still with us today. We can awaken to these capacities through experiencing the finely constructed works of those who came before us.

Written On The Landscape is the third in a series of films on the Chacoan people. 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

"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

Citation
Main credits

Sofaer, Anna (film director)
Sofaer, Anna (screenwriter)
Sofaer, Anna (film producer)
Beaver, Chris (screenwriter)
Beaver, Chris (narrator)

Other credits

Cinematography, Christopher Beaver [and 9 others]; editing, Christopher Beaver.


Citation
Cataloging
Keywords
chaco canyon,cosmology,astronomy,archaeoastronomy,fajada butte,pueblo people,pueblo indians,archaeology,lidar,sun dagger,ancient astronomy,ancient astronomers,mesoamericans,native americans,Navajo,Hopi,New Mexico,Chaco culture,Chacoans,Robert Redford,solstice,petroglyphs,art history,architecture,pueblo bonito,Adriel Heisey,Petuuche Gilbert,Rich Friedman,Elena Ortiz,Philip Tuwaletstiwa,chaco culture national historical park,native american spirituality,archaeology,anthropology,astro-archaeology; "Written On The Landscape"; Bullfrog Films; documentary; doc; science; environment;
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Credits

Written by: Christopher Beaver, Anna Sofaer
Associate Producer: Helen Colton
Editor: Christopher Beaver
Cinematography: Christopher Beaver, Joe Dean, Matt Dibble, Melinda Frame, Corey Robinson, Larry Ruiz, William Stone, Dyanna Taylor, Davd Valentine, Tara Welch
Time Lapse, Aerial Cinematography: Davd Valentine
Aerial Cinematography, Still Photography: Adriel Heisey
Animation Richard Friedman
Narrated by Christopher Beaver
A Solstice Project production