TAC Festival this week with great films and Zahi Hawass.

[L. Coyote]

The Archaeology Channel (TAC) Film Festival in Eugene, Tuesday, May 19, through Saturday, May 23.

TAC Festival this week with great films and Zahi Hawass.
Saturday, May 16, 2009 5:05 PM
From: "[e-mail]"

To our friends in Oregon:

This is the week! TAC Festival 2009 runs from Tuesday, May 19, through Saturday, May 23. If you can, please participate in this event and spread the news throughout your networks. Your support is needed to help us continue TAC Festival in coming years, so help us pack the house! Here is part of a press release we prepared to get the word out:

Decoding Maya glyphs. Mysterious mummies. The real Timbuktu. Druids, rituals and sacrifices. The latest discoveries from the chief archaeologist of Egypt. All this and more will thrill the audience as the top films in the world compete during The Archaeology Channel International Film and Video Festival, opening May 19th at the Hult Center in Eugene, Oregon.

TAC Festival is the only juried competition of heritage films in the Western Hemisphere. The five-day event celebrates the wonders of human diversity with award-winning films from around the world. Topics that range from archaeology and ancient cultures to indigenous peoples and their environments will come alive with historic re-enactments, powerful storytelling and amazing digital effects.

Producers from 25 countries submitted 87 entries for this year’s sixth season. The top 18 films, from leading film producers worldwide, will be shown on the big screen at the Soreng Theater in the Hult Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Eugene, from May 19 through May 23. These films will cover topics ranging from a sophisticated calculating machine found in an ancient Greek shipwreck to wonderful 10,000-year-old cave paintings in the remote Borneo forest, Peruvian villagers fearful of ancestors watching them from looming ruins, and indigenous forest dwellers making first contact with the outside work in 2004, among many others. Six of the competing films already have won awards at international film festivals.

The Keynote Speaker this year, appearing Friday evening, May 22, will be Dr. Zahi Hawass, the chief archaeologists of Egypt. After decades of research on the most significant archaeological projects in Egypt and dozens of appearances on television, Dr Hawass has become the most familiar face in the world of archaeology. His most recent newsworthy project is the excavation, currently in progress, to find the tombs of Antony and Cleopatra.

Ticket prices range from $5 to $30 and are available from the Hult Center (541-682-500).

For a complete list of films, prices and more information, log on to
http://www.archaeologychannel.org/content/TACfestival.shtml.

The full film schedule, including the Dr. Hawass talk Friday night, also is appended below

We hope to see you there! Thanks very much.

Rick Pettigrew
Archaeological Legacy Institute
www.archaeologychannel.org