Pyramids and mummies on National Geographic Channel
Image by Abe WORLD!!!! via Flickr
“Unlocking the Great Pyramid” (8 p.m. Sunday). So the Egyptians just used a giant ramp to cart those 2-ton stones up to the top, right? Actually, there’s no way that happened, despite what you saw in the movies.
In this program Nat Geo contributor Bob Brier teams up with French architect Jean-Pierre Houdin, who in early 2007 announced he had figured out how the Egyptians got their rocky mountains so high. Using sophisticated software, he could show how workers carted those stones to a height of nearly 500 feet above ground.
Brier — who has been Houdin’s biggest champion in the English-speaking world — is an eager co-conspirator and an enthusiastic guide. He’s able to turn this seemingly dry scientific story into one of those whodunits where the detective is personally invested in solving the case.
Other ancient mysteries airing later in “Expedition Week” are the mummy caper “Mystery of the Screaming Man” (8 p.m. Friday) and “Herod’s Lost Tomb” (8 p.m. Nov. 23; yes, the “Week” is actually eight days).
Tutenstein Reigns With Feature Length Movie
The first feature length TUTENSTEIN movie is set to debut on Discovery Kids in the U.S. this fall and premiere internationally at MIPCOM Junior in October.
In TUTENSTEIN: CLASH OF THE PHARAOHS, Tutenstein, Cleo and Luxor take the trip of a lifetime — to ancient Egypt. When Tut is plagued by nightmares concerning his death, he journeys to the past with hopes of stopping his death. But the gang arrives too late, nearly 1,000 years after Tut lived. His hopes for the royal treatment are dashed when Cleo is mistaken for Cleopatra, the current Pharaoh of Egypt. With their roles reversed — Cleo playing the arrogant queen while Tut begrudgingly taking the role of her servant — Tut and Cleo’s friendship is challenged. While Cleo lets the crown go to her head, Tut and Luxor discover the Grand Vizier’s plan to take control of the kingdom by getting rid of Cleo. Tut must stop the Grand Vizier and rescue Cleo before she’s sent to the Afterlife. By the time they return to the present, Tut and Cleo learn the importance of true friendship — no matter what the era.
Both the TUTENSTEIN movie and television series combines ancient Egyptian mythology with contemporary urban humor and attitude. Its goal is to accurately portray the diverse Egyptian mythology, utilizing stories and characters that reflect the lives of kids today. In order to do so, PorchLight’s production team works closely with Dr. Peter Lacovara, TUTENSTEIN’s Egyptology consultant who authenticates the Egyptian content.
EGYPT Film: Sex and jealousy
Aiten Amin’s first short movie, “Her Man,” has gained wide acclaim among movie fans and several critics in Egypt. The rising director surprised many Muslim viewers with an unflinching glimpse into the sexual and moral codes of Egypt’s urban poor.
Given her economic dependency on her husband, Zeina, the movie’s leading character, was forced to submit to the latter’s decision to take a younger bride for his second wife and move her into the same house. Yet Zeina’s submission was not complete. Here lies the most incendiary component of the story: To oust her adversary, she slept with her, leaving a mark on her breast to make their common husband, Sobhi, think that his new wife was cheating on him.
The movie is based on a short story by the renowned London-based Egyptian novelist Ahdaf Soueif. It shows how women in a particular social stratum are obsessed with sexuality. This point was well conveyed through the portrayal of the husband. Viewers never see Sobhi’s face, only his hands, lips and hairy chest. By focusing on his flesh, the director showed that the sexual component was a crucial element for the jealous wife.
Since it came out it in January 2007, “Her Man” was screened in many places around the world, including the U.S., France and Italy. It was awarded two prizes at home, including a best-movie prize at a newly launched film festival last week.
“Mummies: Secrets of the Pharaohs” at Zion Canyon Giant Screen Theater
The 40 minute film is projected on the largest screen in Utah and one of the largest in the world - measuring 60 feet high and 82 feet across. Sound is delivered through an eight track digital Surround Sound system capable of 22,000 watts. The projection system was designed by iWERKS Entertainment, a world leader in large format film systems and simulated experience adventures. It delivers a screen image of unsurpassed clarity and impact.
“Mummies” includes an educational look at a topic many people have been fascinated with for years: the mystery surrounding the embalming of these ancient royals and the answers those well-preserved bodies may hold for modern science.
While focusing on one of the most powerful pharaohs in Egypt’s history - Ramses the Great - the film’s narrative history explores why mummification was so important to ancient Egypt and the techniques used that are only recently being pieced together by scientists. The historical references are interwoven with information regarding the modern-day study of mummies with scholars like Egyptologists Bob Brier and Zahi Hawass as well as DNA scientist Angelique Corthals as they share the strides that have been made during the last several years to uncover this mysterious past.
The movie is narrated by actor Christopher Lee (”The Lord of the Rings,” “Star Wars” and the 1959 film “The Mummy”) and poses various answers to the question, “Why are people so fascinated with mummies?”
“Mummies: Secrets of the Pharaohs” is shown on even hours every day, alternating with Zion Canyon’s “Treasure of the Gods.” It is the first digital film to be shown in the theater. The film is scheduled to run through the end of October.
Film: Out of Egypt: Coptic Christians in America
Andrew Ishak, a 25-year-old graduate student at the University of Texas-Austin, spent three years filming, editing and producing a documentary that profiles Coptic Christian life in the San Francisco Bay Area. The film documents the journey and looks into the future of a religion trying to balance the cultures of Egypt with Christianity in an increasingly progressive setting.
The film includes scenes from a pivotal moment in Andrew’s life, the day he married his wife, Heather, who is white and a Methodist. The couple still struggles with adapting to one another’s faiths and families.
Coptic Christians celebrate Christmas on Jan. 7 and don’t eat any animal products for 14 days prior to the holiday. Andrew decided to forgo this practice to have Christmas dinner with Heather’s family. The decision was a difficult one for Andrew because what differentiates Coptic Christianity from other religions in the United States is its uncompromising determination to stay true to the faith.
About 150 Coptic churches in North America serve as a haven for many Egyptian-Americans, not only as a place of worship but as an extension of what life was like in Egypt. Coptic Christians strictly follow teachings close to 2,000 years old, unwilling to alter or adapt them even as thousands emigrated westward.
The film is set to premiere at 9 p.m. on July 25 at Camera 3 in San Jose.
IMAX docudrama uncovers secrets of Egypt’s pharaohs
Egypt gives up more secrets from its past as archaeologists use forensic science to unravel the genetic makeup of mummies in the docudrama “Mummies: Secrets of the Pharaohs,” showing at the Detroit Science Center’s IMAX Dome Theatre.
Famed Egyptologist/archaeologist Zahi Hawass, Egyptologist Bob Brier and ancient DNA scientist Angelique Corthals appear in the film, while actor Christopher Lee narrates.
The film uses computer graphics to reconstruct great finds in archaeology, including the discovery of 40 mummies in the late 19th century. Among the cache of mummies was that of the mighty pharaoh Ramses the Great.
Besides its giant screen, “Mummies” is also theatrical in nature, using actors who provide subtle performances that play well on the big screen, without a lot of dialogue.
The Battle of “Berrow”
Atlantic Productions will turn the sand dunes of Berrow Beach into a desert location to recreate a chariot scene from an ancient battle involving Ramses the Great.
The filming is for a National Geographic program about the famous Battle of Kadesh, a military engagement that resulted in a draw and produced as a result the first peace treaty between two nations.
Berrow Beach, in England’s South West, is a six mile length of beach with sand dunes and firm sand, the second longest stretch of sand in Europe. The southern end of the beach will be cordoned off during the filming, June 25th and June 26th.
THE LOST COMMON SENSE: When one World Wonder isn’t enough
Lately, it seems that something transcendental has been lost in Egypt, only to be found by the Supreme Council of Antiquities under the direction of Zahi Hawass, with the aid, of course, of the producers of TV mega documentaries from the Discovery Channel and National Geographic.
According to Hawass, only one third of ancient Egypt’s archaeological legacy has been found, leaving room for plenty of new discoveries. Strangely, though, these “new” discoveries inevitably involve someone or something extraordinary and widely known, such as “The Lost Tomb”, “The Lost Queen”, “Nefertiti Resurrected”, you get the picture.
The latest amazing discovery is nothing less than a pyramid mightier than “The Horizon of Khufu”.
History Channel will soon introduce us to the Fourth Pyramid of Giza, “The Lost Pyramid” of King Djedefre, a monumental structure that according to the show’s computer-generated reconstruction, must have astonished the ancient world beyond the Great Pyramid, already regarded in its time as one of the Wonders of the World.
The “lost pyramid” is today a pile of rocks located about five miles of the Giza plateau. The existence of this structure is known since the 19th century, but archaeologists have not been able to properly investigate it, since it is presently located in a military security zone.
What we may surmise from the trailer is that the “lost pyramid” shall be exalted as a structure even higher than Khufu’s, with no emphasis on the fact that the supposed pyramid, whose category has been questioned by Egyptologist Vassil Dobrev of Cairo’s French Institute of Archaeology, is built upon a hill that contributes to its height advantage, and that its absolute size is about half of that of its much more famous “relative”.
No doubt History Channel’s “The Lost Pyramid” will be cleared of its sands by those gust winds sound effects that give expectators an exciting rush that inevitably leaves us cold and hungry for the facts. Certainly, Zahi Hawass’s interventions will provide the carefully measured dose of credibility to this megalomaniac tale of fanciful technology and royal family intrigues.
Indiana Jones and Real Archaeology
Excerpts from an article by Neil Asher Silberman, former director of the Ename Center for Public Archaeology and Heritage Presentation in Belgium, author of “Digging for God and Country” and co-author of “The Bible Unearthed.”
Even worse, the picture of the vine-swinging, revolver-toting archaeological treasure hunter is all wrong. Gone are the days when all that mattered was museum-quality treasure, and the “natives” didn’t matter at all. Certainly in the age of the great colonial empires, archaeologists were often solitary adventurers who could count on the prestige and power of their nations to claim the ruins and relics of ancient empires for themselves. Even without a fedora and a bullwhip, Lord Elgin shipped the famous Parthenon marbles home to England, Heinrich Schliemann smuggled away Troy’s golden treasures, and Howard Carter managed to spirit away precious artifacts from King Tutankhamen’s tomb in Egypt.
…That’s why I cringe when I see how the fedora, leather jacket and bullwhip have become recognizable international promotional symbols of archaeology. Many archaeologists have enthusiastically embraced the Hollywood fantasy, borrowing a bit of Indiana Jones’s mystique for themselves. Zahi Hawass, secretary general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities and archaeological czar of the relics and tombs of ancient Egypt, recently raised funds for charity on a U.S. tour by selling autographed copies of his trademark Indiana Jones hat. The National Science Foundation has just put up an Indiana Jones-themed home page, complete with bullwhip and fedora, and the Archaeological Institute of America, a venerable academic organization of classical archaeologists and art historians, has elected Harrison Ford to its board of directors, in tribute to his “significant role in stimulating the public’s interest in archaeological exploration.” And professor Cornelius Holtorf of the University of Kalmar in Sweden has offered the opinion that “Indiana Jones is no bad thing for science,” suggesting that the film series has attracted many students and supporters to real-life archaeological work.
New film about Ancient Egypt
Agora, filmed on the island of Malta, takes place in Ancient Egypt. Rachel Weisz will star as Hypatia, an astrologer/philosopher battling to save “the collected wisdom of the world” as religious riots flare and threaten the fabled Library of Alexandria. Max Minghella will also star as her slave, along with Oscar Isaac and Michael Lonsdale.
The English language film is due to wrap by the end of June. The film is Academy Awards winner (”Mar Adentro”) Spanish director Alejandro Amenabar’s most ambitious production to date.
Amenabar has hired Guy Dyas (Indiana Jones) as production designer and Gabriella Pescucci (The Age of Innocence) as custom designer.
http://www.cinematical.com/2008/04/28/amenabar-recreates-ancient-egypt/
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