This ethereal and educational film asks us to ponder the questions: Where did the Chaco people come from? How did so many people get integrated into one system? And 300 years later, where did they go and why? The documentary takes viewers through the intricacies of long-standing mysteries that surround Chaco Canyon, and discusses how knowledge of astronomy and the sacred were interwoven with its architecture. It is the third film in a trilogy about Chaco Canyon (The Sun Dagger and The Mystery of Chaco Canyon) by Anna Sofaer, an American researcher who studies the archaeoastronomy of ancient cultures, particularly Ancestral Puebloan cultures of the Southwest.
In the film, Sofaer describes her first visit to Chaco in 1977 as a moment she didn’t know her life was about to change. She visited at summer solstice and rediscovered the Sun Dagger site near the summit of Fajada Butte, then proceeded to spend three decades studying Chaco. Through the nonprofit Solstice Project, Sofaer coordinated interdisciplinary teams of professionals—from archaeologists and astronomers to architects, animators, and remote sensing experts—to explore theories about the site.
“We still don’t know the whole story, because of the immense complexity of Chaco and because it challenges us on so many levels of our own thinking—our cultural biases perhaps, still. Even more so, it challenges us to think in many dimensions,” Sofaer explains in the film. “And there’s the other feeling that in the end, they were completing something and they were not abandoning. They were carefully sealing—a very intentional closing of the buildings.”
Aerial imagery, surveys, and LiDAR results are highlighted to expand our understanding of the architecture, terrain, and “roads” of this ritual complex with deep ties to Mesoamerica. Its stunning imagery combined with flawless narration and insightful commentary from Puebloan descendants creates an experience that leaves viewers wondering about the history of the site, yet peculiarly satisfied that we are ever-so-closer to deciphering aspects of the culture that have long remained an enigma.
—Tracy Loe, Editor
