By Daniel Buckwalter

After a trying past 15 months of postponements and cancellations, Lane County is at the starting line of an in-person reboot, and the Eugene-based Archaeology Channel International Film Festival is helping to lead the way.

The 18th edition of the festival — entirely online last year because of COVID — returns June 23-27 with in-person screenings at The Shedd Institute for the Arts and a three-day Archaeology Channel Conference on Cultural Heritage Media at Civic Winery, with the awards ceremony at the WOW Hall on June 27.

And organizers of the five-day affair are more than eager to get going.

“Although we limited the festival to online screenings last year, we don’t want the coronavirus to take top billing this time,” Rick Pettigrew, president of The Archaeology Channel and founder of the Archaeological Legacy Institute (ALI), says in a pre-festival media release. “Our exhibition of the world’s top cultural heritage films continues to gain prestige internationally because of the wide participation and outstanding content.”

The event kicks off on with a keynote speech by anthropologist and archaeologist Jaime Bach on June 23 at the Gordon Tavern inside the new Gordon Hotel in downtown Eugene. The keynote focuses on the longstanding search for Amelia Earhart, the world-renowned aviator whose disappearance in 1937 — almost 84 years ago to the day of the festival talk — still sparks intense speculation and study.

Earhart was attempting to become the first woman to circumnavigate the globe with navigator Fred Noonan when her plane was lost over the central Pacific Ocean near Howland Island. The two were last seen in Lae, New Guinea on July 2, 1937 on the last land stop before Howland Island and one of the final legs of the flight.

From there it’s on to presentations and, of course, the film screenings and competition.

The festival this year accepted more than a 100 entries from 28 countries before it whittled the competition to 30 films.

Those films spotlight places that range from Papua New Guinea to France and timelines from the Neanderthal era to World War II horrors. Also, there are films on an initiation ritual in the Amazon that features stinging ants as well as a film about the thousands of letters written on clay tablets and reflecting the lives of people 4,000 years ago.

“This year’s lineup of films stands up well in terms of diversity, innovation and quality filmmaking,” Pettigrew says. “We very much look forward to seeing real people enjoying our offerings at real places.”

Following is an alphabetical list and brief description of the 30 juried films in this year’s International Film Festival competition:

  • The Art of Time — Highway construction reveals stunning tombs from different periods of Chile’s prehistory.
  • Comprehending the History: Mysteries of Ancient Kultobe — Excavating for Kazakhstan’s archaeological park.
  • Desalm — Village elder tells the story of an oasis community producing date palms in Iran’s harshest desert region.
  • The Dune People — Excavators on Normandy beach reveal surprising details about pre-Roman Celtic life and trade.
  • Etoa: A Kokoda Track Story — Native memory and excavation recover story of forgotten WWII New Guinea battle.
  • The Forgotten Refuge — Subterranean quarry in Normandy revives memory of civilian horror and survival in 1944.
  • The Gallic Pact — In 57 B.C., young aristocrat initiate takes part as Gauls prepare for battle against Julius Caesar.
  • The Ghost of the Neolithic — In a 5,000-year-old cold case, clothes of Neolithic man melt out from a Swiss glacier.
  • Homo Sapiens: New Origins — Moroccan cave surprisingly reveals bones of modern humans from 300,000 B.C.
  • Kaddish — Young Jewish man in 1943 Poland honors deceased mother and flees for the Promised Land with rabbi.
  • La Charada Teatro: Puppeteers in Guatemala — Artists make puppets, write scripts and perform internationally.
  • The Lost Redwood — Chinese botanist discovers living fossil, but westerners claim credit for the find.
  • Meeting Neanderthal — Discoveries in France and England tell a new story about how Neanderthals actually lived.
  • No Roses on a Sailor’s Grave — Young archaeologist devotedly assists D-Day survivor to locate his sunken ship.
  • Pray — Japanese people of all ages participate in rites-of-passage and other rituals at centuries-old Shinto shrines.
  • Riddle of the Bones: Gender Revolution — Archaeological evidence overturns presumptions about gender roles.
  • Riding through Time — The art of horse riding in archival images from antiquity through the Middle Ages.
  • Rituals: Amazonia, To Become a Man — Man returns to Native village for son to endure initiation by stinging ants.
  • Sarevo — Two Baluchi teenagers in arid eastern Iran raise camels to earn income and preserve their way of life.
  • Saving the Sacred — The Pomo and the community of California’s Clear Lake area team up to preserve priceless 14,000-year heritage.
  • Seeds — Excavated sites show how farming evolved in Fertile Crescent and spread westward into Europe.
  • Sfumato — Rebellious motorcycle-riding daughter defies tradition while helping her rural Iranian family.
  • Smoke and Ochre — Set 19,000 years ago, man risks a child’s life, is cast out by his tribe, and finds shelter.
  • Thus Speaks Taram-Kubi: Assyrian Correspondence — Letters on clay tablets reflect real life 4,000 years ago.
  • Tintin and the Mystery of the Rascar Capac Mummy — True story of mummy character from popular comics.
  • Twelve Decades of Discovery — Archaeology evolves during 123 years of excavation at ancient Corinth.
  • The Untold Story of the Vatican — Uncovering epic history of seat of Christendom, from Roman times to present.
  • Viva Presidio! — White mayor of Rio Grande border town ardently participates in Mexican-American culture.
  • We, the Voyagers: Our Moana — Modern Polynesians build vessels and navigate seas using ancient methods
  • What If Nothing? — Polish archaeologist, facing mockery, invests 30 years looking for lost Egyptian tomb

The Archaeology Channel International Film Festival

When: June 23 through June 27, 2021

Details:

  • Films — Free screenings in the Recital Hall at The Shedd Institute, 868 High St. in downtown Eugene; donations are suggested and welcomed. 
  • Opening banquet — Held at the Gordon Tavern inside downtown Eugene’s new Gordon Hotel at 555 Oak St., 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. on June 23; $55. 
  • Three-day Conference on Cultural Heritage Media of The Archaeology Channel — Civic Winery at 50 E. 11th Ave. in downtown Eugene: For details and costs, click on Conference on Cultural Heritage Media on archaeologychannel.org

Complete information: archaeologychannel.org