At a prehistoric pigment mine, researchers glimpse our earliest moments in the Americas

Derived from iron-rich rocks, red ochre is humanity’s oldest known pigment, with a discovery in a cave in Zambia believed to date back between 350,000 and 400,000 years. For archaeologists, it serves as a (sometimes literal) handprint of prehistoric Homo sapiens, with its presence used to trace our spread across the globe. Ochre Sunrise explores both the prehistoric and recent history of the oldest known mine in the Americas, which was long ago used to produce red ochre. Located near the now-abandoned iron-mining town of Sunrise, Wyoming, millennia-old artefacts had been known to exist at the site for decades, but it wasn’t preserved for archaeological research until the mid-1980s.

In his documentary, Keenan DesPlanques, a US-born filmmaker based in Vancouver, Canada, takes viewers to Sunrise, where, since 2017, the mine has been under excavation by a team of archaeologists. The operation has unearthed some 3,000 artefacts and revealed a rich history that dates back around 16,000 years, offering profound new insights into humans’ early presence on the continent, including glimpses of cultural practices. In documenting these efforts, the film makes for a riveting exploration of both the site itself and the hard work of archaeology, powered by patience, grit and the thrill of discovery.