Village Gamer

KensingtonTV’s hit series Museum Secrets, which has been nominated in the Most Innovative Production and Best Interactive Production categories in this year’s History Makers Awards, launches an exciting second season tonight at 10pm EST on History Channel Canada.

Building on the success and popularity of its first season, Museum Secrets will take viewers inside more of the world’s greatest museums, sharing treasures and little-known stories discovered during their visits. Some important lessons coming up in the new season include hiding in plain sight and why Stalin hated The Black Square Painting.

Fans of the Ubisoft video game Assassin’s Creed: Revelations will find the Topkapi Palace Museum visit especially interesting as the Palace plays an important part in Ezio’s visit to the ancient Turkish city. Personally, I’m looking forward to getting inside the State Hermitage Museum, as it is in one of the cities I most want to visit.

As with Season 1, visitors to the Museum Secrets web site are treated to behind the scenes videos, such as when director David Langer learns how ceramic replicas of Nefertiti are crafted in the workshop at the Neues Museum in Berlin. Check the Museum Secrets blog for more behind the scene videos and vlogs made when the series was being shot. You can also create your own collections of treasures with the Object Navigator and My Discoveriesfeatures of the web site – although some of these discoveries and unexpected surprises will not be accessible until the related episode airs. Saving objects to My Discoveries requires registering for a free account, which will enable you to save and revisit your treasures as often as you wish.

For the uninitiated, the Object Navigator is “a visual way to discover secrets about all the objects featured in the television series.” The series’ creators have also added web exclusive objects and discoveries – each with their own secrets to tell.

• Museums Secrets Season 2 Episode List
  • State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation
  • American Museum of Natural History, New York City
  • National Archaeological Museum of Athens
  • Imperial War Museum, London UK
  • National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City
  • Pergamon and Neues Museums, Berlin
  • Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
  • Topkapi Palace Museum, Istanbul

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_fbU54irb8]

Museum Secrets is produced with the assistance of the Bell Fund, the Canada Media Fund and History TV Canada.

The History Makers Awards, recognizing the very best in History, Current Affairs and Non-Fiction programming, across TV and digital platforms takes place on January 26th in New York City. The awards ceremony is held during the History Makers International conference.

In the Most Innovative Production category, Museum Secrets is nominated with:

• Dambusters (Windfall Films – In association with: Dambusters Canada Productions Ltd.)
• Wartorn 1860-2010
• Horrible Histories
• Back from the Dead/Warrior Graveyard
• A Balloon for Allah

All of the projects are recognized for their originality in the use of new editing, directing styles and technical enhancements.

Along with Museum Secrets in the Best Interactive Production category are  five other innovative cross-platform projects:

• Truth and Lies: The last days of Osama bin Laden (CBC News – Fifth Estate)
• Exile Without End: Palestinians in Lebanon (CBC News, Radio-Canada)
• Mission US – The Stream: Bahrain’s Political Future
• Storming Juno Interactive (Secret Location – History Television Canada)
• The Stream: Bahrain’s Political Future

Other Canadian productions nominated in the History Makers Awards 2012 include:

Best Social Change Production Category:

• Surviving Progress – Cinemaginaire, Big Picture Media Corp and National Film Board of Canada

Best Historical Drama Production Category:

• The Kennedys – A Muse Entertainment Production, in association with Asylum Entertainment for ReelzChannel
• Nazi Hunters – Cineflix (Wartime) Inc., in association with Terra Vermelha Filmes EEP for History Television Canada

Best Current Affairs Production  Category:

• Remote Control War  – Zoot Pictures for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC-TV)