Sentinels of Silence is a 1971 short documentary film on ancient Mexican civilizations. The film was produced by Manuel Arango, and directed and written by the filmmaker Robert Amram. It is notable for being the first and only short film to win two Academy Awards.

Plot

Sentinels of Silence provides an 18-minute helicopter-based aerial visit across the archeological ruins in Mexico including Teotihuacan, Monte Albán, Mitla, Tulum, Palenque, Chichen Itza and Uxmal. The film’s narration details pre-Columbian Mayan culture, focusing on its achievements in mathematics and astronomy, and then questions how and why the Mayan society seemed to disappear, leaving behind its structures as the eponymous silent sentinels.

Awards