Educational DVD Now Available Through Icarus Films

Universities, schools, and organizations can now add Saving Mes Aynak to their institutional libraries, as we are happy to announce that our educational dvd is now available through our distributor, Icarus Films. 

Click here purchase your copy of Saving Mes Aynak

Please note that this is the educational dvd release only. These DVDs are licensed with Public Performance Rights for non-commercial and educational exhibition, when no admission fee is charged. DVDs are, "leased for the life of the media." 

Our home and digital release will be in the second half of 2016, so stay tuned!

New York Screening: February 12th at Fordham University!

A recent photo of Mes Aynak. Photo by Didier Tais

For those in New York, now is your chance to see Saving Mes Aynak: the Fordham Art Law Society will be screening the film on Friday, February 12 at 6pm ET! The screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Brent Huffman; there will also be a special introduction presented by Serdar Yalcin, Postdoctoral Fellow at Parsons, the New School of Art and Design. 

This screening is sponsored by NYU School of Law Art Law Society,  the Columbia Entertainment, Arts, and Sports Law Society, and the Fordham Media and Entertainment Law Society. 

Tickets are FREE, but you must register in advance (and tickets are going fast)! Click here to register on EventBrite. 

Saving Mes Aynak to Screen at the Louvre Museum in Paris on Jan. 28th!

In a wonderful development for Mes Aynak, Saving Mes Aynak will screen at the world famous Musée de Louvre in Paris, France as a part of their 'Journées Internationales du Film Sur L'Art' series on January, 28 2016 at 12:30pm. 

To be able to screen Saving Mes Aynak at arguably the most renowned and prestigious museum in the world is a major honor, and we are incredibly excited to be able to reach audiences in France with the story of Mes Aynak. 

More information can be found on their website here. 

Please spread the news, and for our friends in France, we hope to see you there!

A New Partnership with the Acclaimed Icarus Films

One of the many sacred stupas found at Mes Aynak. 

We are incredibly excited to announce our new distribution partnership with the renowned Icarus Films! Icarus Films is one of the world's leading distributors of documentary films, and we are proud to have them on board to oversee the North American educational, home, and digital release of Saving Mes Aynak. 

Icarus Films has an outstanding track record of getting social issue documentaries into the places where they can do the most good: universities, schools, libraries, and cultural organizations, and involved in educational events all over the world like festivals, expos, panels, and symposiums. They are a perfect fit for us and what we hope to accomplish in the future through our film. 

To learn more about Icarus Films, please visit their website. We will be updating you on upcoming screenings, panels, and all of our educational, home DVD, and digital release dates, so please stay tuned! 

Read the official press release from Icarus Films below

SAVING MES AYNAK

Kartemquin Documentary on Afghan Archaeology Released by  Icarus Films

January 11, 2016: Independent documentary firms Icarus Films and Kartemquin Films today announced their collaboration on the film Saving Mes Aynak. Directed by Brent E. Huffman and produced by Kartemquin Films, the film will be distributed by Icarus Films to educational, home and digital markets including college and university libraries across the U.S. and Canada. 

Saving Mes Aynak follows Afghan archaeologist Qadir Temori as he races against time to save a 5,000-year-old archaeological site from imminent demolition. Only 10% of Mes Aynak (pronounced  mees eye-nock) has been excavated, though discoveries at the site have the potential to redefine history. Now, the archaeology site—as well as an entire mountain range—will be completely demolished. Saving Mes Aynak examines the conflict between cultural preservation and economic opportunity as Qadir Temori and his fellow Afghan archaeologists face pressure from the Taliban, a Chinese mining company and local Afghan politics to save their cultural heritage from erasure. 

Saving Mes Aynak is a selection of film festivals including the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, American Documentary Festival Palm Springs and Dokufest Kosovo. The film has won awards from Ahvaz International Science Film Festival of Iran, The Archaeology Channel International Film & Video Festival, Arkhaios Cultural Heritage and Archaeology Film Festival, Cinemambiente International Environmental Film Festival, and the IAFOR Documentary Film Award. International organizations for the preservation and study of art and archaeology have hosted screenings of the film, including the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C. and the Louvre Museum in Paris, France.

The contract for the distribution of Saving Mes Aynak was signed by Tim Horsburgh for Kartemquin Films and Jonathan Miller for Icarus Films. The two firms have collaborated on a number of projects, most recently making Kartemquin titles available on Docuseek2, an educational streaming platform.

"Advocacy filmmaking at its best and most chilling... That rare doc that needs to be seen." 
—IndieWire

"An engrossing look at the conflict between cultural preservation and economic opportunity."
 —Audiences Everywhere

"A call to action that needs immediate attention... This is a movie that demands you at least tweet your congressman after viewing." 
— Inside Pulse

"Shows the sheer determination of the Afghan archaeologists to protect their culture against overwhelming odds... Huffman has crafted a remarkable film of courage, heroism, and hope."
—Current World Archaeology Magazine

Order Saving Mes Aynak for your school library

Game-Changing Support from The Reva & David Logan Foundation

We are beyond honored to announce that The Reva & David Logan Foundation has awarded Saving Mes Aynak a $50,000 grant to support our outreach and impact goals. This is a game-changing development for us and the movement to #SaveMesAynak. 

The three main pillars of our outreach campaign are to preserve Mes Aynak as a protected cultural heritage site; use the film to widen public perspective of Afghanistan's cultural heritage; and to strengthen the Archaeology Department at the Afghan Ministry of Culture in Kabul to protect Mes Aynak and other important historical sites in Afghanistan. 

Mes Aynak, Winter

We've done much in the past year to strive towards these goals, but this grant will allow us to do more than we ever could have imagined to achieve and accomplish them. We have big plans in 2016 to raise enough awareness to save Mes Aynak from destruction, and we cannot wait to share them with you. Thank you to the Reva & David Logan Foundation for this wonderful honor, and for all that they do for the arts, culture, and history

Mark Your Calendars: Our Indian Premiere SET for January 2016!

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Saving Mes Aynak will have its Indian premiere as a part of the Aesthetic Project's symposium, "Treasure and Tragedy from Oxus to Indus: Gandhara, Bactria, and Bamiyan," which takes place January 27 - 28, 2016. 

The Aesthetic Project is a wonderful cultural organization that seeks to be a, "platform for academics, artisans, and performers to explore a variety of topics of Indian art history and aeshetic heritage," and we are incredibly happy to be partnering with them for our Indian premiere. 

The symposium takes place in New Dehli, India. Tickets are currently available, but go quickly; if you're able to attend, we urge to you sign up asap!

Special Holiday Broadcast on Al Jazeera America 12/24 & 12/26!

We are overjoyed to announce that Saving Mes Aynak will have a special holiday re-broadcast on Al Jazeera America on 12/24 (Christmas Eve) and 12/26 at 7pm EST! 

In the months following our initial broadcasts on Al Jazeera English & America this past July, Mes Aynak's profile in the public consciousness has risen exponentially. Our AJ broadcasts and appearances on CNN Amanpour, Huffington Post Live, and Voice of America (Pashto & Dari), along with screenings at renowned institutions like the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, have helped to shine a major light on this important archaeological treasure. Thought-provoking articles about Mes Aynak in National Geographic and reports by NPR have also been instrumental in raising awareness of Mes Aynak around the world. 
 

A beautiful shot of Mes Aynak and the surrounding countryside. Photo by Brent E. Huffman

This broadcast couldn't be more timely, as Mes Aynak continues to be threatened by mining and looting. One of the great triumphs of the Saving Mes Aynak campaign was to push the Afghan government and the Chinese mining company to delay copper mining at the ancient site. But sadly some Afghan ministers and local officials are now pushing for destructive open-pit mining to begin as soon as possible. This mining would both permanently destroy the environment and the priceless cultural heritage at Mes Aynak. To have another opportunity to reach viewers around the world via the Al Jazeera broadcast, and potentially move them to action will go a long way in strengthening the pressure we can put on the Afghan government to rethink their position on Mes Aynak, and put in place the necessary protection of the site to stop looting.

We ask you to please tell your friends, family, and social networks about Mes Aynak, Saving Mes Aynak, and our upcoming Al Jazeera America broadcasts on December 24 & 26. If we all chip in together, we can accomplish something truly wonderful and #SaveMesAynak. 

Our Canadian Premiere is Set: Jan. 30th at the Reframe Film Festival

We are excited to announce that our Canadian premiere is now set for January 30, 2016 at 10am, as an official selection of the Reframe Peterborough International Film Festival!

Reframe is a wonderful festival that seeks to not only celebrate film and art, but "be a catalyst that inspires people to take action." We're proud to be a part of this year's lineup, and to celebrate our Canadian premiere at RPIFF. 

Early bird tickets are now available for purchase on their website. 

The IAFOR Documentary Film Award Honors Brent Huffman

Director Brent  Huffman

Saving Mes Aynak director Brent E. Huffman is the recipient of the prestigious IAFOR Documentary Film Award IDFA Honorary Award! 

Brent was honored on November 14th in Kobe, Japan at a special ceremony at the 2o15 IAFOR Documentary Film Award & Festival, where Saving Mes Aynak was also presented as this year's featured screening. 

Brent has been making social issue documentaries and environmental films for more than a decade in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. His films have gone on to win numerous awards including a Primetime Emmy, three Cine Golden Eagle Awards, A College Emmy, a Student Academy Award, and a Grand Jury Award at AFI's SILVERDOCs. 

IAFOR had this to say about Brent:

"His body of documentary work and his dedication to raising awareness around several important social and environmental issues throughout the world has also made Mr. Huffman the recipient of this year’s IDFA Honorary Award."

Congratulations, Brent! 

The IAFOR Documentary Film Award honoring Brent E. Huffman with the IDFA 2015 Honorary Award

Current World Archaeology Reviews Saving Mes Aynak

"Huffman has crafted a remarkable film of courage, heroism, and hope. And the fight is not yet over." — Tom St John Gray
 

Saving Mes Aynak was reviewed to critical acclaim in the the current issue of Current World Archaeology Magazine! CWA is one of the world's leading archaeology news magazines, and we're honored to be one of the featured articles in this quarter's edition. Thank you to writer Tom St John Gray for his powerful words; he is right — the fight to save Mes Aynak is not yet over, and if we continue to work together to raise awareness, we can save this important world heritage site from destruction. 
 

read THE FULL ARTICLE ON THE CURRENT WORLD ARCHAEOLOGY WEBSITE

New Artifact Discovered at Mes Aynak

PHOTO: Ground has been broken on a new excavation site at Mes Aynak  

A small Afghan-lead excavation began last month in a new part of this massive, historic site. They recently discovered the head of a statue, which Afghan archaeologists believe to be of the Buddha: 

Full Audio from the Carnegie Endowment Post-Screening Discussion and Q&A!

On September 15, 2015, we had the honor of screening Saving Mes Aynak at the world-renowned Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, one of the most important and influential think tanks in the world. Following the screening, Brent Huffman sat down for a discussion and Q&A with Carnegie's VP for Communications and Strategy Tom Carver, and journalist Hannah Bloch, who recently wrote the National Geographic article "Rescuing Mes Aynak". Embedded above is the full audio from that riveting post-screening discussion. 

As the situation surrounding Mes Aynak continues to worsen, screenings and discussions like this — that help to raise awareness and the profile of Mes Aynak in the public eye — are becoming increasingly important. The more we share the story of Mes Aynak, the better our chances of putting enough pressure on the Afghan government, UNESCO, and the Chinese-State owned mining company to do what NEEDS to be done to ensure that all of Mes Aynak — not just a few artifacts and scattered pictures on pages — is protected and preserved. 

Green Film Network: Saving Mes Aynak, A Love Letter to Afghan People & THeir Culture

A recent photo of Mes Aynak, taken in June 2015. This massive site, equal in size to Pompeii and Machu Picchu, is already re-writing the history of Afghanistan and Buddhism. 90% of the site remains unexcavated, and if plans to mine at the site continue as currently constructed, all of this history will be lost forever.  

Writer Valentina Tibaldi of Habitat wrote a powerful article about Saving Mes Aynak for the Green Film Network. Thank you to Valentina for her support, and for helping share the message of Mes Aynak: 

A denunciation shouted to the world, a fight against time in order to save Mes Aynak, a 5,000-year-old archaeological site in Afghanistan. A symbol of cultural identity of priceless historical value, this place is threatened to be destructed to make place for a Chinese open pit copper mine.

Saving Mes Aynak, a documentary by the filmmaker, writer and journalist Brent E. Huffman, shows all this and much more. Awarded with the International One-Hour Film Prize at CinemAmbiente 2015, member of the Green Film Network, the movie tells the story of the Afghan archeologist Qadir Temori: with a group of fellow archeologists, he faces what seems an impossible battle against the Chinese, the Taliban and local politics to save their cultural heritage from forthcoming erasure.

Click here to read the full article

Join us for the INSCIENCE: Dutch International Film Festival on Nov. 6 - 7!

Afghan Archaeologist Qadir Temori hard at work, Saving Mes Aynak

Please join us for two festival screenings of Saving Mes Aynak at the InScience: Dutch International Film Festival in Nijmegen, Netherlands on November 6 & 7. InScience has put together a wonderful pairing of "film + talk" discussions for SMA: 

After the screening at 18:45 on November 6, Dr. Evert van der Zweerde (Professor of Political Philosophy, Radboud University) and Dr. Paul van der Velde (Professor of Asian Studies, Radboud University) will participate in a discussion about the importance of archaeology, the unique religious history of Afghanistan, and the current political climate surrounding Mes Aynak. 

On November 7 (16:45), archaeologist Niels Stoffels will provide an introduction to the film, and afterward the screening, writer Johan Roos Literair Productiehuis Wintertuin will read an impressionistic poetic report, which he will create live while watching the film. 

Tickets for both events are currently available for purchase on the InScience website. InScience is a unique film festival that, "focuses purely on science film and shows the beauty and relevance of science via film to a broad audience. InScience dares science, the arts and society to enter the dialogue. The program of InScience most importantly exists of an overview of the best science films of the year."

We're proud to be a part of this important intellectual festival. We hope you will be able to join us!

SMA to Play the Festival of Southasian Documentaries in Kathmandu, Nepal

Saving Mes Aynak will screen in beautiful Kathmandu, Nepal as a part of Film Southasia's Festival of Southasian Documentaries! Film South Asia, which takes place this year from November 19 - 22, was founded in 1997 with the goal of highlighting films about South Asia, and popularizing documentary films that can inform and change lives. We are proud to be partnering with this wonderful organization for our Nepali premiere! 

Click here to learn more about our screening and the Festival of Southasian Documentaries

SMA to Premiere in Japan for the IAFOR Documentary Film Award & Festival on November 14!

Saving Mes Aynak will be the featured documentary film for the IAFOR Documentary Film Award & Festival in Kobe, Japan on Saturday, November 14th! Director Brent Huffman will be in attendance, and after the screening will host a Q&A discussion with the audience. This year's event will take place at the Art Center of Kobe; tickets are available online until November 13th for ¥1,500, and will then be ¥2,000 at the door. 

"The IDFA was founded to seek out and reward the storytellers, documentarians and filmmakers who have demonstrated excellence in the craft of documentary filmmaking. We wish to acknowledge these artisans by presenting a showcase of their work and reward them with the equipment, tools, and resources they will need to further continue working in the craft."

Click here to learn more!

"Buddha Goes Boppard" Doku Film Festival Screening on November 1

Saving Mes Aynak will screen at the "Buddha Goes Boppard" Doku Film Festival in Boppard, Germany on November 1 at 2pm! The festival, presented by the Sawa Rigpa Foundation, serves to highlight documentary films that document and analyze the Buddhist faith and its history. 

You can check out the full lineup of films here. Tickets to this year's festival are available for a 15 € donation! 

U.S. Embassy Sponsors Project to Preserve Afghanistan's Cultural Heritage

A reminder of the epic size and beauty of Mes Aynak. Remember: only 10% of the site has been fully excavated. 

A potentially history-changing development is taking place in Afghanistan: the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan has just announced the launch of a new embassy-sponsored project with the Oriental Institute (University of Chicago) and the Afghanistan Institute of Archaeology to help preserve Afghanistan's cultural heritage. The effect this could have on Afghanistan's rich history is invaluable, and we hope that it serves to help protect Mes Aynak and sites like it all over Afghanistan.

Read the full press release below

"The U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan is proud to announce the launch of a new U.S. Embassy-sponsored project with the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago and the Afghanistan Institute of Archaeology to help preserve Afghanistan’s cultural heritage.  The project, formally launched on October 21, 2015 in a ceremony with Minister of Information and Culture Abdul Bari Jahani and Director of the Afghanistan Institute of Archaeology, Abdul Qadir Timori, will produce a satellite-based map database of Afghanistan’s cultural heritage sites and train young Afghans in the field of archaeology and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). 

The database will be the first of its kind in the Middle East and Central Asia, and will allow the Afghan government to map all archaeological heritage sites in the country, document the current state of site preservation, monitor looting, and serve as a planning tool to incorporate heritage protection into mining and other economic development projects.  Director of the Oriental Institute, Dr. Gil Stein, noted that this project “is explicitly focused on capacity building at the Afghan Institute of Archaeology and on documenting the extent of looting of archaeological sites across Afghanistan as an important tool for heritage preservation. As such our work complements and adds to the efforts of other projects dealing with other aspects of regional heritage documentation.”

The U.S. Embassy is currently funding projects worth more than $6.5 million to support Afghanistan in the protection of its unique and globally important cultural heritage."

SMA Wins the Grand Prize at the Arkhaios Film Festival!

We are proud to announce that over the weekend, Saving Mes Aynak won the Grand Prize Award at the 2015 Arkhaios Cultural Heritage and Archaeology Film Festival! We feel incredibly honored to have been selected for this distinction. Not only that, but the film was also selected for the Audience Favorite Film Award for Day 3. We're happy that we were able to take part in this wonderful festival, and share the important story of Mes Aynak with the people of Hilton Head, SC. 

Thank you to the Arkhaios Film Festival, and the 2015 Jury Selection Committee: 

- Dr. Karl Heider (Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the University of South Carolina)

- Dr. Steve Smith (Director of the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of South Carolina, Research Associate Professor) 

- Dr. Rex Garniewicz (President and CEO of the Coastal Discovery Museum)

- Steven McLean Folks (award-winning Filmmaker, South Carolina ETV)

- Lynne Cope Hummell (Writer, Editor of the Bluffton Sun and the Hilton Head Sun)

An additional thank you to Lynne for the kind words she wrote about the film in a recent Hilton Head Sun article: 

The film was amazingly well done and the story fascinating. As I said in my notes, "About halfway through, I wanted to book a flight and go help Qadir [the archaeologist]. Incredibly powerful." 

Don't Forget: Please Join us on October 17th at Yale University

For those in the Northeastern area, Saving Mes Aynak will be screening at Yale University on October 17th as a guest of the Yale Himalaya Initiative. Festivities kick off at 6:15pm EST with a special dinner, after which the screening starts at 7pm EST. Director Brent E. Huffman will be in attendance to host a Q&A and discussion. We hope you are able to join us! 

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE

This event for the Yale Himalaya Initiative is co-sponsored by the Yale Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage, and supported by the South Asian Studies Council & the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.