Directed by Anna Sofaer • Documentary • With Christopher Beaver • 2024 • 58 minutes
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 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. 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.
"This film is a journey not only through history but through the very soul of a land and its people." —Robert Redford
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