The Maya - Myth and Reality

Lizensing

Photo copyright by Andreas M. Gross

The Maya

Myth and Reality

Documentary, 3 x 57 minutes, DigiBeta, 16:9, stereo

Year of production: 1999

Director: Klaus Dexel

Cameraman: Michael Teutsch, Thomas Schwan, Reinhard Köcher

Production: Bechert & Dexel Filmproduktion

Produced for: ARD/BR

Versions: German

This trilogy on the world of the Maya is the most extensive film project on this topic until now. The Mayan culture is shown as a continuum stretching over thousands of years and the course of history is relived by learning about the personal destiny of kings, shamans and explorers.

Part I is dedicated to the glory of the classic age and its adventure of discovery.

Part II shows the magic world of the Mayas and the war of Conquest.

Part III gives an account of the collapse of the highly advanced Mayan civilisation and the survival of its people to the present day.

In these three films we experience an exciting archaeological journey through the ages.

We follow the traces of discoverers up to the present day and reveal the complex, magical,

mystic world of the Maya. Famous Mayan sites such as COPAN, QUIRIGUA, TIKAL, PALENQUE, YAXCHILAN, YAXHA/NAKUM, CHICHÉN ITZA and UXMAL are shown in their splendour and magnificent architecture which is partly overgrown by the jungle, and which still exerts a fascinating attraction for archaeologists, tourists and grave robbers alike.

Important Maya secrets like their scripture, the mysterious ritual ball game, and their death cult are presented in the light of most recent scientific insights. The „bearers of secrets,“ the shamans are performing rituals that are still alive today. How could the Maya built with Stone Age tools complex temple structures and towering ritual hills to honour their God-Kings? Who were these people that created works of art of lasting splendour and recorded their calendar in books? The merging of mysteries about life, death and resurrection, the past and future created a magic cycle which determined the thoughts and reality of the Maya .

The view held by previous generations of researchers that the Maya were romantic esoteric

and peace-loving astronomers is refuted. The Maya were rather ruled by an elite class that had an unscrupulous and calculating lust for power and exploited their people, until it was consumed in dynastic intrigues and ruinous expansionist wars. This probably explains why the Maya culture spontaneously collapsed after 1200 years.

Through the Spanish Conquest and colonial domination, the Maya survived. „The people of the corn,“ today approximately six million strong, have preserved their identity over two millennia, in spite of all the changes.

For licensing and more information please contact:

Björn Jensen

email: jensen(at)gingerfoot.de

Download the flyer here.