History Documentaries

Approaching 2 million views, this is the most successful video on my YouTube channel. It explores Timgad in Algeria, one of the best-preserved Roman colonies, using the surviving ruins to reconstruct how the ancient city was organized. Drone shots and detailed on-the-ground footage of the archaeological site are combined with illustrated drawings that help visualize everyday life in a Roman city. This was the breakout video that put Street Gems on the map and led to interest from brands looking to sponsor the channel.

This documentary tells the little-known story of a shipwreck carrying sculptures from the Parthenon, and the operation to recover them from the seafloor. This is one of my best projects and involved historical research, including books, strong storytelling, and visual dramatization of the events. I also took a strong directing role, working with two freelance artists to create custom animations depicting the events. Music is a strong component of the edit, with the visuals tightly edited to Vivaldi’s Four Seasons to heighten the drama of the storm and sinking.

This was only the second video on my YouTube channel, but it quickly took off, reaching almost a quarter million views in its first month. The video played an important role in establishing the style of Street Gems: short but information-rich documentaries that connect an archaeological site to the wider historical world around it. Caesarea explores this interplay between the micro and macro, looking at how broader historical forces shaped one particular city, and how that city in turn became part of a much larger story.

Approaching 1 million views, this 21-minute documentary is the longest video on my YouTube channel. It provides a comprehensive look at the ancient Lycian civilization, covering its origins, language, architecture, political history, and relationships with neighbouring cultures such as the Greeks and Romans. The project required bringing a wide range of historical material together into a single coherent narrative, supported by extensive footage of Lycian archaeological sites across southern Turkey.

This documentary explores the story of Lord Elgin and the controversy surrounding the Parthenon Marbles. I worked closely with a 3D animator to reconstruct Elgin’s men removing the sculptures from the Parthenon. I directed the composition, camera angles, and architectural details, with one sequence crossfading from a famous historical painting into a 3D reenactment of the same scene, bringing the painting to life. I then enriched the animations with sound design and carefully chose the music tracks to create the appropriate atmosphere.

This documentary looks at three of the best-preserved Roman amphitheaters in the world, with each chapter using a different tone and music to complement the character of the site. Produced for a sponsor under a tight deadline, this was my fastest Street Gems production, completed from start to finish in 12 days while keeping production costs low. Despite being one of my simpler edits, I carefully selected cinematic footage and created a visually polished result.

This is the first episode in a four-part documentary series covering the history of Ephesus, with the complete series adding up to almost an hour of content. I structured each episode to work as a standalone documentary while also fitting into the larger series. Part 1 explores the Greek origins of Ephesus and the early development of the city, including the Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

The second episode explores Ephesus at its height under the Roman Empire. After establishing the historical, geographical, and political context behind the city’s importance, the documentary becomes a spatial tour through Roman Ephesus, moving through the archaeological site and exploring its major monuments. This episode makes strong use of reconstructions of what the city would have looked like in its heyday, integrating them with drone and on-the-ground footage to help viewers visualize the ancient city.

This episode demonstrates an approach I often use in my documentaries: connecting a single archaeological site to the wider historical world around it. Ephesus becomes a window into the transition from the pagan Roman world to early Christianity, connecting the surviving city to the travels of Paul, the New Testament, and traditions surrounding John and Mary. Rather than looking at the site in isolation, the documentary places Ephesus within the broader story of the ancient Mediterranean world.

The final episode asks a deceptively simple question: how does one of the great cities of the ancient world eventually disappear? Rather than looking for a single cause, the documentary connects several factors that contributed to Ephesus’s long decline, from the gradual silting of its harbour, to changing historical circumstances, and the dismantling and reuse of the city’s buildings. It brings the four-part series to a natural conclusion by following Ephesus not through another period of growth, but through its eventual disappearance.