Hidden away in the canyons of a top-secret military base on the edge of the Mojave Desert is the largest concentration of rock art in North America. Created over thousands of years by a now vanished culture, it represents the oldest art in California.
Talking Stone: Rock Art of the Cosos explores the remote canyons and the mysteries surrounding these amazing images.
The film explores different methodologies for understanding rock art, through interviews with archaeologists, contemporary Native people, and extensive photography of the art itself.
Goldsmith's intriguing documentary, "Talking Stone: Rock Art of the Cosos" is a visually engaging example of ethnographic "multivocality" at its best. Unable to interview the creators of petroglyphs made thousands of years ago by the now-extinct Coso people, Goldsmith instead reveals what the mysterious images mean not only to Native Californians and archaeologists today, but to hunters, artists, clinical psychologists, and even to the U.S. Navy, on whose missile testing grounds the rock art now remains protected. "Talking Stone" should appeal to audiences of all ages, from elementary school children to adults, interested in Native American cultures, archaeology, rock art, and the desert environment of the American West.
–Nancy Lutkehaus, Ph.D., Co-Director, Center for Visual Anthropology, University of Southern California