The Silk Road: The Journey from China to Turkey

Product Description The Silk Road influenced the great civilizations of China, India, Ancient Egypt, Persia, Arabia, and Ancient Rome. The Silk Road was filmed by award-winning filmmaker Marlin Darrah, and crew. In 1271 Marco Polo left Venice, Italy on a journey of 4,000 miles to China. His book, The Travels of Marco Polo, opened the trade route to greater traffic as cultures, ideas, and goods from the West and East were exchanged and great fortunes were made on the Silk Road. China traded silk, teas, and porcelain. India traded spices, ivory, textiles, precious stones, and pepper. The Roman Empire exported gold, silver, fine glassware, wine, carpets, and jewels. This program travels through five countries and thirty cities bridging the Far East with Europe. Visit these exotic lands and learn about their cultures, modern traditions, and histories. About the Actor Marlin Darrah is the executive director of International Film & Video (IFV), an award-winning production company based in the U.S. Over the course of Darrah s adventurous thirty-year career, more than fifty travel-adventure companies, educational organizations, and universities have contracted his producing, directing and shooting talents. Assignments and productions have taken him to more than 130 countries around the world. Darrah is particularly skilled at documenting unusual and intriguing cultural and geographical subjects. Darrah has been described as one of North America s most experienced and recognized producers of international video programs and stock footage. His company, IFV maintains a unique stock library, featuring 2000+ hours of pristine and original worldwide footage. Shot in both high definition and standard definition formats, all footage is available to television industry producers and educational organizations for either limited-use or royalty-free licensing purposes. PRODUCTION SUMMARY: Marathon, Darrah's first 16mm film, examined the drama of the Olympic Trials Marathon and won critical acclaim in the sports world. The film attracted the attention of Runner's World magazine in San Francisco. For three years, Marlin produced several films for the magazine, one of which, Moments of the Runner, was a finalist in the American Film Festival in NY. For that film, Darrah shot footage throughout the U.S., as well as in Moscow, and at the site of the first Olympic Games in Greece. In addition to his work with Runner's World, Darrah also produced NIKE's first film. In the early 1980s, Darrah traveled to many regions of India to shoot 16mm footage for two documentary programs. He traveled to India more than a dozen times from 1982 2002. Also during the 1980s, Darrah was contracted by a Seattle company, Society Expeditions, to film such countries and locations as Morocco, Senegal, the Amazon, New Guinea, Indonesia, Singapore, Burma, Yemen, Jordan, Egypt, and the icy continent, Antarctica. He produced several travel-adventure films describing those parts of the world. From 1982-2006, Darrah shot and directed documentaries and travel programs in more than 130 countries worldwide, for more than 50 international companies. His clients have included National Geographic, PBS, CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, The Discovery Channel, and The History Channel. He has worked with such companies as Nature Expeditions International, Exploration Cruise Lines, Royal Viking Line, Holland America, International Expeditions TRAVCOA, Cultural Folk Tours International, TraveLearn, Eco-Expeditions, World Explorer Cruises, Varig Brazilian Airlines, Garuda Airlines, Federal Express, Lost World Adventures and the Univ. of Virginia s Semester at Sea program. In 2005 Darrah directed and shot a documentary television mini-series in Egypt for probable broadcast on the History Channel. For 2007-08, Darrah has been co-producing and will direct and shoot a docudrama set in Saudi Arabia. Darrah also recently completed a 7-part, 7-hour DVD series, World s Most Exotic Places. Profiled are Central