Pittsburgh, PA - The Arkhaios Cultural Heritage and Archaeology Film Festival is celebrating its 11th year of making the cultural heritage of past civilizations better known to a diverse audience.

 
In addition to the Virtual Edition, October 9-15, 2023, Arkhaios will return to in-person festivals:

• in South Carolina: Florence County Museum, October 12, 2023
• in Pittsburgh, PA: Frick Fine Arts Building, October 13-15, 2023

New this year, the Arkhaios SHORT Films competition presents future talent in filmmaking. Recognizing the important role short independent films have in the history of filmmaking, storytelling, and culture, Arkhaios helps empower the next generation of artists and scientists attracted to telling the stories of our past in twenty minutes or less.
 
The SHORTS Screening Committee has selected 13 short films to enter the competition as the SHORTS OFFICIAL SELECTION, plus 5 short films as the SHORTS FESTIVAL SELECTION. Both selections will be streamed at the Arkhaios Film Festival – Virtual Edition.
 
The Arkhaios Virtual Edition allows for all the films to be viewed at any time during the week of the festival, from Monday, October 9 @ 9 am EST through Sunday, October 15 till midnight EST.
 
Go to the Arkhaios website https://arkhaiosfilmfestival.org/ and click on the “Festival Access” button, or go to the Arkhaios festival site https://arkhaiosfilmfestival2023.eventive.org/welcome and enjoy the free festival at your leisure!
The Awards Winners will be announced online Saturday October 14, 2023, 5pm EST.
  The Arkhaios screening will take place at the Florence County Museum. The event will be held on Thursday, October 12 from 5:00 to 7:00 PM. The museum is located 111 West Cheves Street, Florence, SC.  This free event, open to the public, will include a reception, lecture and screening of a film.

The film to be projected from the Arkhaios Virtual Edition will be:
“The Champollion Brothers: The Egypt Code Breakers”,
a 2022, 52’ film by Director Jacques Plaisant.

Two hunded years ago, Jean-François Champollion deciphered the Egyptian hieroglyphs for the first time, thus solving one of the greatest enigmas in the History of Humanity.

What little is known is that behind this genius hides a man in the shadows: Jacques-Joseph, the eldest brother of the Champollion family.

The Florence County Museum (FCM) reflects the Pee Dee region’s rich artistic, cultural and historic heritage. Through a dynamic range of exhibitions, studios, lectures and family programming, the FCM provides an engaging educational experience to visitors of all ages.
 

The Festival is at the Frick Fine Arts Building Auditorium, 650 Schenley Drive, Pittsburgh, PA, on the University of Pittsburgh campus. The films screening will be Friday October 13, 7pm to 10pm, Saturday October 14, 7pm to 10pm, Sunday October 15, 2pm to 5pm. The event is free and open to the public.

The films cover a wide range of topics: on Friday the discovery of a lifetime: a 20-metre long, 1200-year-old Viking funeral ship. Who is hiding in the grave? Followed by a puzzle: At the end of the Second World War, hundreds of Chinese seamen who served with the Allies during the conflict vanished from their homes in Liverpool, England. Declassified documents prove these heroic men and their families were betrayed by the British government in an astonishing act of deception.

Then, on Saturday evening, in a forest in eastern Poland, an archaeologist digs to bring to light the traces of the Sobibor extermination center erased by the nazis. Thousands of objects that belonged to the victims are emerging from the ground as fragile witnesses. In the next film, Yorna's spiritual beliefs revolve around the wandjina - creator beings whose images adorn the caves and rock ledges throughout the Kimberley in Western Australia. Refreshed with new ochre each year by his ancestors the wandjinas are now fading away with the absence of Yorna's people. The film is witness to the radical action of a man and his community determined to bring their deity 'back to life'.

On Sunday, first, what is the real history of the Incas, the people who have become legendary, but never had writing? From the four corners of their ancient empire, scientists are gathering all the clues to establish the truth, revealing aspects unknown or poorly understood until then. And to close the festival, Pirates ! How did the pirates live, who were they beyond the legend? The film invites us to take a captivating plunge into the little-known history of maritime piracy, which accompanied the boom in maritime trade between Europe and Asia.

7 Days – 24 Films - 18 Countries - 20 Cultures !

The Arkhaios Virtual Edition allows for all the films to be viewed online at any time during the week of the festival, from Monday, October 9 @ 9am EST through Sunday, October 15 till midnight EST.

http://www.arkhaiosfilmfestival.org or https://arkhaiosfilmfestival2023.eventive.org/welcome

###

The multi-day Arkhaios Cultural Heritage and Archaeology Film Festival is an annual juried competition, part of Archaeology Month celebration. It is free, open to the public, and is an educational event showcasing the discovery of past cultures gained from ethnological or archaeological research, and illustrated through documentary films.
 
The Arkhaios Film Festival is sponsored by the SC Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology (SCIAA) and the Department of Anthropology of the University of South Carolina, and, in Pennsylvania, by the Department of Anthropology of the University of Pittsburgh, and the Allegheny Chapter #1 of the Society for Pennsylvania Archaeology.
 
The Arkhaios Cultural Heritage and Archaeology Events corporation is a non-profit, 501(c)(3) organization producing the Arkhaios Film Festivals in South Carolina and in Pennsylvania. A Virtual Edition offers the selected films online.
 
Visit the Arkhaios website at: http://www.arkhaiosfilmfestival.org/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ArkhaiosFilmFestival
 
For more information, contact Arkhaios Film Festival info@arkhaiosfilmfestival.org.

-0-