Breaking the Maya Code

The documentary takes up Maya writing. Maya hieroglyphs are a complex system. For a long time it was one of the scripts nobody could read. The decipherment stretched across two hundred years. Many people worked at it over that time. Some went down the wrong roads. Others took small but lasting steps. The documentary follows that effort. The camera travels to nine countries. Filming was done on three continents. Leading names in the field speak in it. Michael Coe is among them. Ian Graham and Nikolai Grube give their accounts too. The film was adapted from Coe’s book. David Lebrun directed the hundred and sixteen minute documentary. The American production was finished in 2008.