La Piedra Ausente 2013
Distributed by Third World Newsreel, 545 Eighth Avenue, Suite 550, New York, NY 10018; 212-947-9277
Directed by Sandra Rosental and Jesse Lerner
DVD, color, 82 min.
High School - General Adult
Archeology, Government, Political Science, Art, History
Date Entered: 03/27/2018
Reviewed by James Gordon, University at Buffalo LibrariesNear the current town of San Miguel Coatlinchán, Mexico, around 500 AD a monolith now known as Tláloc was initiated, but never completed. Over time, the unfinished monolith became a local attraction as well as an archeologically significant artifact. In 1964, archeologists and engineers moved the monolith to a new museum, Museo Nacional de Antropología.
The story of how the museum acquired and transported the monolith is the subject of this documentary. Animations depicting the story are interspersed within a traditional documentary-style movie. It is a thorough expose of how the town and its people decided to exchange the monolith for government promises, as well as a chronicle of the moving process.
The story itself is interesting and is especially pertinent to how preservation and display of archeological artifacts affects the places from which they are taken.