Full Show - In support of The 81st Pecos Conference, scheduled this year in Flagstaff from August 7-10, we've tried to come up with a way oguild the lily of these procedings. We decided pitch in by celebrating contributions of filmmakers who have dedicated time and expertise, art and inquiry, in order to capture and share "moments" in the arc and dialogue of Southwestern archeology.
To this end we are proud to offer A GAME WITH THE GODS Ancient Ballcourts of the Southwest, produced by Peter Blystone and Brian Cass, for your viewing pleasure. Something of an historic marker in itself, this half hour documentary dates back to 1996, it was one of the first of its kind to treat the subject of pre American ball courts in the American Southwest.
Though it may sound
like an obscure subject, ball courts are signifiers of unique cultural groups. There is at this time an unpreserved and crumbling Basque ball court here in Flagstaff , for example, which marks a period in local history when there was a Basque population sufficient to warrant the such a place. Lacrosse, Baseball
, Soccer and the Mesoamerican ballgame believed to be the ancestor of our pre-American ball courts here in Arizona, all speak to organized and discrete competitions unique to specific cultural groups.
We encourage you to attend this years Pecos Conference; to sensitize yourself to the heritage of this place. Or, you might just like see how we might go about preserving our local Basque ball court ~ with the same care given Arizona's over 200 pre-American ball courts. hmmmmmm...
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