Related posts
Description
Finding Your Roots, Seasons 1 & 2: The basic drive to discover who we are and where we come from is at the core of this PBS series with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Continuing on the quest begun in his previous projects (African American Lives, African American Lives 2 and Faces of America, and others), Gates finds new ways to, as he says, "get into the DNA of American culture." Professor Gates uses a team of genealogists to reconstruct the paper trail left behind by our ancestors and geneticists to decode our DNA to help us travel thousands of years into the past to discover the origins of our earliest forebears. Each of the episodes highlights celebrity guests, as Gates guides them through layers of ancestral history, uncovering secrets and surprises of their family trees and sharing life-altering discoveries. Gates shares the findings with each guest and travels with them as they process what they've learned. He accompanies musician John Legend to a rock concert, goes backstage on Broadway with Samuel L. Jackson, joins Newark, NJ Mayor Cory Booker as he reveals their findings to his parents, and trails Dr. Sanjay Gupta to a memorable family reunion. Also, husband-and-wife actors Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick, who are revealed to be distant cousins; New Orleans jazz masters Harry Connick, Jr. and Branford Marsalis, whose European immigrant ancestors made very different choices in the slave-era South; Spiritual leaders Angela Buchdahl, Yasir Qadhi and Rick Warren, whose ancestors' paths to America were shaped by religious convictions; and Education superstar Geoffrey Canada and media legend Barbara Walters, who both rediscover family histories long obscured by forgotten name changes. The series leaves audiences all the more curious about their own background and eager to unearth their own family roots. As seen on Public Television. This DVD features subtitles in English (SDH)
