Film & Discussion: The Stones Are Speaking

Join us for a screening of The Stones Are Speaking, an award-winning documentary about archaeologist Mike Collins and a decades-long effort to study the Gault Archaeological Site in Central Texas. Once heavily looted, the site ultimately yielded evidence of human presence dating back some 20,000 years, adding to a growing body of research challenging long-held archaeological timelines for the peopling of the Americas.

Part biography, part archaeological mystery, the film follows Collins and the community of volunteers and professionals who worked to safeguard the site and understand what it could reveal. But the story also raises questions that extend well beyond one archaeological discovery: Who gets to interpret the deep past? How should archaeological knowledge evolve as new evidence emerges?

Following the screening, stay for a conversation with one of the film’s main experts, Tom Dillehay, and others, that places the film in a broader context and invites us to think critically about archaeology, cultural heritage, and the ways we continue to reconsider our past.

The Stones Are Speaking premiered at the Austin Film Festival, where it received the Audience Award for Texas Independent Feature, and made its broadcast debut on PBS in 2025.