Mile high: Local filmmaker does Machu Picchu

Rick Preve (right) and his crew film as archeologists take a new look at Machu Picchu.
PHOTO COURTESY PREVE FILM

"Why did the Incas abandon their city in the clouds?" asks the promo for NOVA's Ghosts of Machu Picchu. The National Geographic special airs February 2 on PBS and is produced and directed by occasional Crozetian Rick Preve.

"The biggest challenge about filming at Machu Picchu was, without question, the altitude," writes Preve in an email from somewhere in South America. "Machu Picchu is at about 2,300 meters [nearly 1.5 miles up], which is quite high in itself, and hauling cameras, sound equipment, etc., up and down mountains and valleys was a challenge to all in the crew." And to get there, they had to drive through mountain passes that reached 4,200 meters.

It's not the first high-altitude excursion for Preve. In 2008, he co-produced
Child Mummy Sacrifices for National Geographic, filmed at Llullaillaco, the highest archeological site in the world.

And at last year's Virginia Film Festival, Preve screened his first fiction movie, Jose Ignacio– although that one was filmed at sea level.