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FINDING YOUR ROOTS
PBS Series, 2012
The diverse American experience as it relates to race, culture, and identity is the focus of Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Presented and written by renowned Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr., the series continues the quest begun in African American Lives 1 and 2 and Faces of America and carries it to an entirely new level. Each hour of Finding Your Roots features a different pair of celebrity guests, who are bound together by an intimate, sometimes hidden, link whether it be as old friends, through long lost relatives, or even through a common past. This season's celebrity guests include Barbara Walters, Robert Downey, Jr., Kevin Bacon, TyraBanks, John Legend, Michelle Rodriguez, Margaret Cho, Samuel L. Jackson and Martha Stewart, among many others.
Gates and his production team work closely with the country's leading genealogists (including the New England Genealogical Historical Society and Johni Cerny) as well as a host of ancestry experts around the world, to uncover lost family stories from that the guests never knew existed. When the paper trail runs out, Gates and his research team turn to top geneticists and DNA companies such as 23 & Me to analyze each participant's DNA, digging deeper into their family trees -- sometimes even debunking family secrets. Gates shares his findings with each guest, and in many cases, travels with them behind the scenes as they process what they've learned, accompanying John Legend to a rock concert, talking to Samuel Jackson backstage at his Broadway play, joining Cory Booker as he reveals the results of his family history to his parents, and trailing Sanjay Gupta and Geoffrey Canada to memorable family reunions. Gates also reaches beyond these celebrity stories to seek out everyday individuals wrestling with similar questions of identity. He visits with barbers at his favorite barber shop in Cambridge and engages students in Harlem curious about their genetic makeup. In all, each episode is a journey through one branch of the American past leaving audiences all the more curious about their own past and eager to unearth their own family roots.
Senior Producer: Rachel Dretzin
Senior Story Producer: Asako Gladsjo
Producers: John Maggio, Julie Marchesi, Jesse Sweet, Caitlin McNally
Written by: Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Edited by: R.A. Fedde, Seth Bomse, Nancy Novack, Ken Levis, Ben Howard
Director of Photography: Stephen McCarthy, Samuel Russell
Original Music: Michael Bacon
Film Website | Series Trailer
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