Ephemera: Archaeology on Television
Ephemera, made in 2004 by Sean Caveille, is a short film about the popularity of archaeology/history programmes on TV. At the time, new quick-paced series like Extreme Archaeology (Channel 4) and Hidden Treasure (BBC 2) were desperately trying to capture new viewers by turning archaeology into that most dreaded of adjectives - 'sexy'. Four years later and the BBC are trying to do the same thing again with Bonekickers... Ephemera has a distinctive visual style which is achieved through placing the importance back upon the archaeology itself: once the interviews were filmed and edited, they were video-projected onto prehistoric West Kennet long barrow and re-filmed. More about this can be found here: www.archaeologychannel.org/content/video/ephemera-about.htm
