Blink Films producing doc about lost African civilisation

Blink Films is in production on a documentary about the lost African civilization of Great Zimbabwe for US and French broadcasters.

Hour-long single Lost City of Gold is for PBS network WNET in the US and France’s Arte and features exclusive access to the archaeologists excavating the ruins, which for centuries was considered by European historians to be too sophisticated to have been built by African people.

Surrounded by giant walls standing 40 feet high and 16 feet thick, Great Zimbabwe is the largest precolonial man-made structure in southern Africa. It housed a population of up to 20,000 people and was filled with gold and treasures from across the world, along with beautifully carved African artefacts.

Although few people today have heard of it, it was a vast and bustling medieval African city, but by the time it was found by European explorers, it was all but abandoned ruins.

Experts are now mounting a new excavation to uncover the truth about the site: who built it, how its inhabitants grew so wealthy, why it was abandoned and why so few know its story.

Lost City of Gold, which will also get a theatrical release, is exec produced by Tom Adams and Dan Chambers, with Shermane Henlon producing, Nick Tanner edit producing and Ben Holgate directing. PBS Distribution handles global distribution.

Dan Chambers, Blink’s creative director, 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, the excavation’s lead archaeologist who was born near the site, added: “The story of Great Zimbabwe has been dominated by outsiders… Now we are here to change that. We are here to reclaim its history.”