Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of The Toynbee Tiles (2011)

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Sundance Film Festival Announces 2011 Line-Up

B. Alan OrangeDec 1, 2010

115 films will screen at the festival, which runs from January 20th to January 30th in Park City, Utah.

Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of The Toynbee Tiles (2011)

Critics Score

65%

Release Date

August 1, 2011

Director

Jon Foy

Writers

Jon Foy
Colin Smith

Cast

Justin Duerr
Marc Duerr
Kevin Riley
Abby Miller
Steve Weinik
Colin Smith

Official Website

resurrectdead.com

Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of The Toynbee Tiles Synopsis

Beginning in the early 1980s, hundreds of tiles carrying this cryptic message were found embedded in the asphalt of city streets as far apart as New York, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Santiago, and Buenos Aires. Street art? A prank? A message from space?

Filmmaker Jon Foy recounts how young artist Justin Duerr became fascinated with the strange plaques and, with two other "Toynbee tile" enthusiasts, Steve Weinik and Colin Smith, spent years trying to discover what they meant and who made them. The unlikely investigators uncovered increasingly bizarre clues: a newspaper article, a David Mamet play, a Jupiter colonization organization, and a Toynbee message that "hijacked" local news broadcasts.

That the origins of a street tile can be so captivating is testament to both Duerr's passion and Foy's filmmaking. Artfully constructed, Resurrect Dead thrusts us into the black hole of this fantastic mystery but also reflects on Duerr himself, and the personal connection he develops in his attempt to find an answer.