Once upon a time

Summary: Each year over seven billion people across the world are drawn to see the latest feature films in the cinema. Thisepisode reveals how the most powerful storytelling medium ever created exploits visual techniques invented by artists in the ancient world. Film is only 100 years old, but storytelling goes far back into history -- in fact, as far back as the birth of civilization in Mesopotamia, to the world's first written language, cuneiform. Cuneiform tables told stories, as did Greek sculptures, some of which told of the troubles of Odysseus. The Roman emperor Trajan had a 35 meter tower built in the center of Rome to tell the stories of his greatness. Much later, with Australian Aborigines, David Attenborough, the British filmmaker, discovered how Aboriginal artists coupled sound to their art to create the elements integral to today's films.