Really old art

In Dei manibus mea est vita

I went to the Film Fest tonight and saw Cave of Forgotten Dreams - a documentary about caves in Chauvet, France with 30,000-year-old paintings in pristine condition. My neighbor and her husband sponsored the film and gave me two free tickets. I'd planned to go anyway with my friend Kay but the freebies were a nice bonus. The film was shown in the "Leopard Lounge" or something like that. We sat in uncomfortable ladder-backed gilded chairs for niiiiiiiiiiiinety five millllllion minutes.

Maybe I'm exaggerating.

It's astounding to think that more than 30,000 years ago, people painted detailed depictions of horses and rhinoceroses and bears on cave walls. They didn't live in these caves - they went there purely for artistic and ceremonial purposes. They went deep into the cave interior and painted by the light of torches.

So even though the film was rather long and repetitive and not especially well done (in my unprofessional opinion), it was fascinating and I enjoyed giggling over the cheesy bits with my friend. I think our favorite part was watching and listening to the pony-tailed French archeologist who used to be a circus performer.

And then we got to go put our handprint-pictographs on a giant painting that will be installed somewhere so in 30,000 years pale, hairless archeologists in shiny silver bodysuits can analyze the spiritual implications of our seemingly random array of handprints.

--Olive Koffay