Blink Films is in production on a landmark documentary for The WNET Group, ARTE and theatrical release uncovering the largely unknown story of a mysterious southern African ghost city, once home to up to 20,000 people, which for decades historians claimed was too majestic and sophisticated to have been built by African people.
Lost City of Gold (1×60’) has exclusive access to the archaeologists excavating the buried ruins of Great Zimbabwe, in the heart of southern Africa. Surrounded by giant walls standing 40 feet high and 16 feet thick, it’s the largest precolonial man-made structure in southern Africa, was once home to up to 20,000 people and was filled with gold and treasures from across the world, along with beautifully carved African artefacts. A vast and bustling medieval African metropolis, by the time it was discovered by European explorers the city was all but abandoned ruins. Today, few people have heard of it.
Now, experts led by Zimbabwean archaeologist Professor Shadreck Chirikure of Oxford University, who was born less than an hour from the site, are mounting a new excavation to uncover the truth about this remarkable site. They want to reveal who built it, how the inhabitants grew so wealthy, why it was abandoned, and why so few know its story? They reveal Great Zimbabwe wasn’t just an African city, but the centre of a spectacular gold-rich African civilisation with trades route reaching as far as China. Lost City of Gold includes interviews with researchers across Africa and beyond as they piece together Great Zimbabwe’s extraordinary rise and catastrophic fall, and why it was erased from the record.
Since encountering it in the nineteenth century racist European settlers claimed that Africans were incapable of building such a huge metropolis, instead claiming it was built by Arabs, Persians or another non-African people; while steadily looting the valuables they found there to sell to private collections. When one archaeologist suggested otherwise, the British colonial government buried his findings and restricted further excavations. It’s only thanks to the diligent work of archaeologists, including Shadreck Chirikure’s new generation of Zimbabwean researchers that its origins as an African-built pre-colonial city has gained acceptance.
Dan Chambers, Creative Director, Blink Films said: “Lost City of Gold is a revelation-packed film with exclusive access to the African-led team as they uncover gold and other hidden treasures, and forensic analysis from world renowned experts, which reveals a whole new understanding of a forgotten pre-colonial superpower – and how colonialism wiped it from history.”
Professor Shadreck Chirikure, Lead Archaeologist adds: “The story of Great Zimbabwe has been dominated by outsiders… Now we are here to change that. We are here to reclaim the history of Great Zimbabwe”
Lost City of Gold is a Blink Films production. It is produced by Shermane Henlon, with Nick Tanner edit producing, directed by Ben Holgate, and executive produced by Tom Adams and Dan Chambers. PBS Distribution is the global distribution partner. Blink Films is a Tin Roof Media company.
Jon Creamer
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