Lost Treasure film restores 1994 Bethlehem peace concert

The new documentary film “Lost Treasure” recreates a historic 1994 concert of Georg Friedrich Handel’s “Messiah” held at the Church of St. Catherine in Bethlehem. The event, conducted by Francisco de Araujo, brought together an audience of Israelis, Palestinians, Christians, Jews, and Muslims.

To produce the film, director Harvey Warren and Braintree Productions utilized artificial intelligence to restore degraded footage from a single surviving VHS tape. The restoration process addressed color, sharpness, and image composition to meet modern theatrical standards.

The two-hour documentary combines the restored musical performance with sixty new 4K scenes filmed across the Holy Land and a Dolby Atmos audio mix. The project highlights the decade of negotiations required by de Araujo to stage the performance in the sacred site.