Come with us to an Alaska you did not know existed as we follow the migration route of the first Eurasian nomads who crossed the ancient Bering Land Bridge into America 15,000 to 20,000 years ago!

Our journey begins on the eastern coast of Chukotka province in Russian Siberia, which is part of the Beringia Ethnic Park created in a U.S.-Russian partnership to protect as much as possible of the very special human heritage of the region. In Chukotka, we meet our Yupik and Eskimo hosts and get our first glimmer of what life might have been like during the last ice age.

We then fly to the U.S. side of the International Date Line on Little Diomede Island in the Bering Strait, one of the last remaining geological vestiges of the Bering Land Bridge.

Our Eurasian ancestors traveled over this tiny island from Chukotka when it was part of the vast 1,000 mile wide Land Bridge, before the last era of global climate change melted the icy, frozen Bridge, creating what we now call the Bering Strait and separating Eurasia from America.

We will hear native Alaskans tell us about this journey through ancient legends in their ancestral languages as we sail from Little Diomede island to the remarkable and almost unknown Bering Land Bridge National Preserve on the mainland.

The Preserve is a geologic marvel of volcanic crater lakes (maars) and ancient ragged rock upsurges (tors) that are found in only a few places on earth. A rich archaeological record of early humanity has also been found in the Preserve. Follow along as we talk with natives and historians, ethnologists and geologists, folklorists and poets, who collectively paint a vivid picture of this mystical land that you will never forget.

Then join us as we continue on to Barrow, the Arctic ice cap, back to Prudhoe Bay and down the Dalton Highway to Fairbanks, where we board the famous Alaska Railway for our return to Anchorage. Along the way, we promise plenty of adventure and introductions to some of the most amazing and informative Americans you will ever meet.

What is America? It begins in Alaska!

Read more about early human migration into America. And be sure to sign up for our newsletter to receive regular updates.

Images courtesy of beringiapark.ru

What is America? Check out our collection of Falcon photos, taken mostly on the streets of Buenos Aires throughout 2008, to open a unique window into the history of the times. We add a new Falcon every week, with bits of accompanying Americana and Falcon trivia. Click here to be notified.

But most importantly, please become a sponsor of Pan American Dreams - at any level - and help us restore an old Falcon off the streets of Buenos Aires to be given away in a contest to a deserving person in Buenos Aires at Christmas 2009.

Check our Falcon slideshow gallery.

Read more! Visit our Falcon links gallery.

Join us on a journey through Northern Argentina and into the mystical heart of the Argentine Puna in the southern Andes. The stark physical and geological beauty of el norte and the Puna are on full display in this daring documentary project.

But El Norte takes its cinematic exploration to another level as it reveals the unique people of this ancient region in ways that resonate with nearly Biblical significance. There is wisdom in this film that is highly relevant to our current historical moment.

The personal narratives we explore are framed and contextualized with dramatic landscape footage that brings this part of the Andean region fully to life. We film and participate in the performance of a Quechua ritual to pachamama (mother earth). We spend a day with aboriginal school children trekking for miles through rugged mountainous terrain in Jujuy province to attend school. We visit a brother and sister who have not spoken in 10 years in a fight over the rights to the artesian water supply on their one hectare (2.47 acre) oasis in the heart of the Puna. And much more.

Locales range from UNESCO world heritage sites to the most remote and inaccesible regions of Argentina. El Norte and la Puna gives us a one-of-kind answer to our central question: "What is America?"

See these Journal articles:  Mummies (Las momias), Snowy Peaks and Oasis, day 1.

The project was directed by Nicolas Bachmann (see About section) and is currently being edited for late 2009 release.

Part food show, part cooking show, part detective show, La Comida Aborigen takes us back to pre-Columbian America in search of lost ingredients, cooking methods and a philosophy of the earth that allowed our aboriginal ancestors to live in a world virtually free of flu, colds and cancer.

We learn about ingredients such as algarroba from the Argentine Sierras, sacred grains such as quinoa from the northwest Andes, dozens of varieties of corn with origins ranging from Paraguay to the northern Puna and more than 100 kinds of potatoes (las papas) whose American origins date back thousands of years.

Filmmakers and storytellers Alex Sly and Ine Kracht left Buenos Aires, Argentina in late December 2007. They arrived in Mexico City 10 months later after traversing 15 nations, driving across the Andes, crossing the famed Darien Gap between Colombia and Panama with their truck by ferry and driving through Central America to Mexico City.

Their mission was simple: equipped with a van, a portable screen, a projector and the rights to more than 110 films, Alex and Ine set out to bring cinema to remote pueblos throughout Latin America. Their arduous journey was motivated by the experience of working on an anti-poverty program in Argentina and realizing that while it was a good program, they wanted to do more. They hit upon the idea of bringing movies to those who often do not have them, and very often do not have television. In some instances, the people they visit have never seen a moving image from either TV or movies.

Each stop along the way on this amazing journey weaves another strand into the tapestry of responses that answer the question, "What is America?"

Read Journal entries:  Movies for America, Rodando Cine begins, The niños of Chuqui Chuqui.

We are editing 10 months worth of filmed footage, photography and journal entries and anticipate an initial release by late 2009 or early 2010.

Our Lady was first commissioned by a Portuguese immigrant farmer, a devout Catholic worried about the lack of ardent devotion among his neighbors. He had two statuettes of Our Lady cast by a friend in Brazil and brought to Argentina by ox cart in 1630. Upon reaching the area of Luján, the oxen refused to move until the statuette with the Child Jesus was removed from the cart. This statuette of Our Lady has been venerated ever since.

The pilgrims come from across Latin America and as far away as Scandinavia and Europe to pay homage to Our Lady of Luján. They also come for a variety of reasons besides religion, and the October pilgrimage to Luján has quietly become an international underground cultural phenomenon over the years, often taking on the feel of a concert or festival. Filmmaker Lilian Laura Ivachow, who wrote and directed the film, is a critic for Argentina's most respected journal of cinema, El Amante. She takes us on a fascinating journey into the heart of the Luján phenomenon by creatively embedding a fictional love story at the center of her naturalistic documentary of the pilgrimage.

Pablo and Virginia Go to Luján is the first movie of its kind about Luján, part ultra low budget cinema verité, part unblinking documentary that seamlessly presents environmental themes such as the pollution of the Luján river within the context of the fictional storyline without preaching, but also without flinching, and without distracting from the quirky, unique love story at the center of the film. This story unfolds as the procession to Luján grows ever larger and more fervent in its surge towards transcendence.

Go with us to Luján. See trailer on YouTube.

In a rare archaeological find in 1903, the largely in tact ruins of a pre-Incan village were found at Tastil in northwestern Argentina, the largest and most important such find in Argentine history. The entire population of Tastil, estimated between 2,000 and 3,000  people, disappeared almost overnight sometime between 1360 AD and 1440 AD, before the Incan conquest of the area and well before the European Conquista. To this day, the cause of their disappearance, leaving behind their homes and domestic artifacts, is a mystery. Fascinating myths about Tastil abound among the people of the region.

Profesora Mary Montenegro began studying the ruins in depth after a vacation visit there more than 10 years ago, and she has devoted her life to Tastil since. What Profesora Montenegro discovered was that patterns among the scattered rock etchings at Tastil perfectly matched patterns in ancient Asian, and especially ancient Indian, art and illustrations.

Her presentation based on her book, Las Bailarinas de Tastil (The Dancers of Tastil) draws packed audiences throughout Argentina. Now, Pan American Dreams is working with Profesora Montenegro to make this fascinating and thought provoking presentation available to a wider audience in a bi-lingual book and DVD package.

Full production is scheduled to begin later this year. Inquiries about distribution, involvement as an associate producer or sponsorship opportunities should be directed to: Esta dirección electrónica esta protegida contra spambots. Es necesario activar Javascript para visualizarla