For most Americans, where we live and raise our families is often shaped by the forces of history, a series of events our ancestors obviously had no control over. Perhaps our forefathers or foremothers were forced to relocate because of war, persecution or famine. Or maybe simply the desire for a better economic opportunity.
We've long been fascinated with the American immigration experience, as you can see with our production coordinator Ursula's Irish Lucky Charms story. And it seems that stories like these can prove to be a ratings bonanza.
On the heels of Harvard Prof. Henry Louis Gates' PBS series "Faces of America," tonight NBC debuts its new family tree venture:"Who Do You Think You Are?"
The show banks on celebrity power -- Lisa Kudrow, Sarah Jessica Parker, Spike Lee, Matthew Broderick, Brooke Shields, Susan Sarandon and Emmitt Smith -- to make the case that family history research shows "just how connected everyone is not only to the past, but to one another."
Kudrow, one of the executive producers of the series, gives an overview of all the celebrity family history discoveries here. Parker discovers she has a tie to the Salem Witch Trials and Smith treads on the very soil where his ancestors were shackled and exported as slaves.
Living in the Media Age is a tremendous opportunity to make sure our families never have to wonder where they came from. In all likelihood, PBS or NBC isn't going to make a film about your personal heritage, regardless of how fascinating it might be.
But you CAN give your kids and grandkids a broadcast-quality documentary film about your family. Or you can honor your parents or grandparents or uncles/aunts at a milestone birthday or anniversary celebrating their accomplishments and meaningful impact on your life.
Explore some of the possible themes of capturing real life stories through our personal documentary service. Reel Profiles preserves the history most important to YOU.
What will be your business or career legacy? Do you admire any small business owners for how they treat their employees or customers?
ABC News just reported on the amazing story of Bob Moore and his decision to grant ownership of Bob's Red Mill Natural Foods to his 209 employees.
Moore quotes the Bible's warnings against greed and notes some of the Wall Street scandals as the reason why he wants to share his wealth with the people who helped him earn it in the first place. He says he vividly recalls a time in his life when he worried about how he was going to pay his bills.
And the gift to his employees came as a celebration of his 81st birthday!
Do you know any men or women like Bob Moore? Consider capturing their stories in a Reel Profiles documentary or tribute video celebrating the role of small business in America.
It's almost as if PBS read our minds.
Harvard University historian Henry Louis Gates is hosting a new documentary series celebrating the family heritage of 12 prominent Americans -- asking the big question of why does it matter to know who our ancestors were?
Faces of America, which runs on PBS through March 3, explores the genealogy and family stories of the following celebrities (selected countries of origin in parenthesees):
-- Elizabeth Alexander (England/Jamaica): Yale University professor and poet who composed a verse for the inauguration of President Barack Obama.
-- Mario Batali (Italy): World-renowned chef, Food Network star and frequent competitor on "Iron Chef."
-- Stephen Colbert (Ireland): Comedy Central star of The Colbert Report.
-- Louise Erdrich (Native American/Turtle Mountain Chippewas): Celebrated novelist and author of "Love Medicine" and "The Plague of Doves."
-- Malcolm Gladwell (Jamaica/England): New Yorker staff writer and best-selling author of "The Tipping Point," "Blink," and "Outliers."
-- Eva Longoria (Mexico): Gorgeous star of "Desperate Housewives," and close namesake to Tampa Bay Rays slugger Evan Longoria.
-- Yo-Yo Ma (China): Legendary cellist and classical musician.
-- Mike Nichols (Germany): Hollywood film director best known for The Graduate and The Birdcage. A blood relative of Albert Einstein!
-- Queen Noor (Syria): Born Lisa Najeeb Halaby in the United States, she later studied architecture at Princeton University and married King Hussein of Jordan. Now chairs the King Hussein Foundation, which focuses on humanitarian causes.
-- Dr. Mehmet Oz (Turkey): Oprah Winfrey's favorite heart surgeon and diet expert.
-- Meryl Streep (Germany): Perennial Academy Award contender and star of "Sophie's Choice," "Mamma Mia!" and "The Devil Wears Prada."
-- Kristi Yamaguchi (Japan): Olympic gold medalist figure skater & Dancing With The Stars champion. Author of "Figure Skating for Dummies."
PBS has posted selected excerpts of these interviews on-line. Stephen Colbert is particularly proud of his family's labor on the Erie Canal, a public works project he admits he did not even recognize when he recently drove over a bridge crossing it.
Kristi Yamaguchi's maternal grandfather George Akira Doi was the only Japanese-American in his infantry unit in World War II. She discusses his heroism on the battlefield, even as his wife and family were confined in domestic internment camps.
But she also shares more lighthearted sentiments, such as the overwhelming gush of pride she felt during her first trip to Tokyo as a teenager -- especially being impressed by Japan's introduction of the Sony Walkman cassette player to the world.
And actress Eva Longoria riffs on her mixed "Texican" heritage and her fascination with the culture of her Aztec ancestors. Longoria reminisces about her childhood Mexican Easter tradition of smashing eggs on her head to celebrate the Resurrection.
The PBS "Faces of America" series is an entertaining way to explore the idea of researching your own family tree. But more importantly, you need not be a celebrity to celebrate these stories of how you wound up in America and what life was like eons before the Sony Walkman.
Consider having a Reel Profiles documentary crew do some of the heavy lifting for you. Reel Profiles capture the real life heroes in your past, present and future. (No, we don't have a crystal ball with TiVo. We mean there is no reason to wait until your hero's golden years to do a video tribute to him or her!)
Former presidential candidate John Edwards finally admitted to the rumor that dogged him all during the 2008 campaign. Yes, indeed, he is the father of his mistress's baby girl.
Edwards just keeps on smacking it to his traumatized wife Elizabeth, who is still battling cancer. According to press reports, the child was conceived in the middle of 2007, right around the same time that John and Elizabeth renewed their wedding vows for their 30th anniversary.
We're not here to preach against the pitfalls of infidelity -- although we are on the record that we are wholeheartedly against it.
The Edwards case begs the question of family legacy. How will his other kids see their new 2-year-old sister? How will this wind up on the Edwards Family Tree?
Essentially, when you make a personal documentary about your family, you are faced with two choices. Do you want to be a journalist/biographer telling the story from a detached, objective perspective -- or do you want to preserve family stories and memories for future generations?
There is no right or wrong answer here. Some people embrace the warts of their ancestors, even wear it as a badge of pride (like finding out an ancestor was imprisoned at Alcatraz or was a prominent mafia hitman). Others find it shameful.
When you put together a family documentary, it is up to you about whether to enact your power of selective omission.
Unfortunately for Edwards, his dirty laundry cannot be shoved back in the hamper.
So how about you? If you are the family historian or family filmmaker, do you see yourself more as a journalist or more as a memory keeper?
Tiger Woods. Blah. Blah. Blah. Sex Scandal. Blah. Blah. Blah. Pre-Nup. Blah. Blah. Blah. Mistresses. Blah. Blah. Blah.
In this era when no one wants to take a stand on anything, we certainly stipulate that adultery is selfish, mean-spirited and morally wrong.
But the Libertarian streak in us also makes us wonder why so many Americans care about the infidelity updates flashing across our screens every 10 minutes.
WHO CARES?!?
Let Tiger sort out his own family problems and let's focus instead on the people we care about. How about paying tribute to our parents or grandparents who have been married for (gasp!) 50 years or even 75 years!
Aside from a fabulous deli platter, there's no better way to celebrate these kind of happy life milestones than commissioning a personal documentary for a community screening and for future generations....
OK, we do wanna make one comment about the Tiger Woods thing. If you have to pay someone to stay married to you, maybe it's not a healthy relationship.
It is extremely rare that we know when history is unravelling before us.
Pearl Harbor. The JFK, RFK and MLK Assasinations. 9/11.
One of the best ways to merge personal history and American history in a personal documentary is to ask your interview subject what he or she was doing when the World Stopped. Tomorrow's interviews might be anticlimactic, with answers like "Why, I was on Twitter, of course."
But your parents and grandparents likely have fascinating snippets on how earth-shattering news impacted the most minute details of their lives.
World War II veteran Clifford Barrett, who helped liberate the Dachau concentration camp in Nazi Germany, was 15-years-old when America entered the war. He heard about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on the radio. A dramatic reminder of how close teenage years are to adulthood, he was running around Europe with a gun only three years later.
For the past 41 years, Barrett has been writing letters to politicians, celebrities, athletes and military figures -- asking them to share their personal memories of Pearl Harbor. The amazing collection of correspondence, which he refuses to sell to memorabilia dealers, includes replies from President George Bush (the first one), first lady Lady Bird Johnson, golfer Arnold Palmer, broadcast news legend Walter Cronkite and actors Jimmy Stewart, James Cagney and Gene Kelly.
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, actor Walter Matthau ("The Bad News Bears") wrote that he was listening to a New York Giants game:
"I was listening to a football game and I thought it was very
presumptuous of them to tell us about Pearl Harbor while this important
game was going on. I have since changed my mind."
Sometimes the contrast of life's simplest things are the most powerful reminders of history.
Of course, putting a life story in a wider historical context need not be centered around tragic events. You may choose to get your interviewee animated about a World Series game, a county fair, a presidential election, the theater release of a classic movie or even the music that was popular decades ago.
These personalized stories used in a Reel Profiles documentary can be enhanced with archival footage and photographs of historic events, and of course, vintage music.
Do you know your grandparents' wedding song?
Who's your local celebrity? Who in your community takes those extra steps to make life a little more special for everyone around them?
Over the past 40 years, Carson City gas station owner Bill Williamson delighted audiences at the Nevada Day Parade by riding shotgun in his antique Model-T Ford with one of his dogs happily performing the driving duties.
Hats off to driving doggies Buddy, Beaver, Budd and Beauregard, and the remarkable man who trained them. You can read the 88-year-old Williamson's obituary in the Nevada Appeal. Like any good magician, he never revealed how he pulled off the trick.
No offense to the canine community, but we wouldn't want any of those dogs driving a school bus or ambulance.
As pictured above, Williamson's dogs also were chauffeurs for Santa Claus during his hometown's annual Christmas Tree lighting ceremony.
Who are the characters in your community who really make your hometown shine?
Wouldn't it be great to pay tribute to them, give the ultimate thank you, with a personal documentary capturing their life story?
Again, no offense to the canine community, but we use REAL people, not dogs, as editors, writers and cinematographers!
Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Pedro Martinez, who inarguably owns one of the biggest egos in professional sports, was unable to deliver his team to the Promised Land this postseason.
But Pedro already has a bunch of Cy Young Awards and a World Series ring from his Red Sox days, so what's another trophy mean? Just something else to collect dust on the mantel.
What's really important to Pedro, discovered Boston Herald sports columnist Steve Buckley, is Pedro's legacy.
“Normally, when you die, people tend to give you props about the
good things. But that’s after you die. So I’m hoping to get it before I
die," the ballplayer told Buckley.
“I don’t want to die and hear everybody say, ‘Oh, there goes one of
the best players ever.’ If you’re going to give me props, just give
them to me right now.”
Pedro's right. We don't praise him as frequently as we should.
Just kidding. Although Pedro's words are hardly meant to be altruistic, they do apply to those of us gathering family histories, planning a milestone birthday or anniversary gala or a corporate tribute dinner.
Why should a person's obituary or funeral eulogy be the most prominent occasion to lavish praise or celebrate a life's accomplishments?
Pedro's life has been well covered -- although we will take your business Mr. Martinez if you are interested -- but one of the moments we would include in a Reel Profiles personal documentary about him is captured here:
When you are performing exceptionally well at your job, participating in acts of medical tape bondage is hilarious. If Pedro were a so-so pitcher, these hijinks would probably be seen as a sign that he doesn't take his job seriously.
In any case, you don't have to win a Cy Young Award or wrap yourself up in medical tape to have a movie made about you. Whether you are interested in commissioning a personal film about family history, a business legacy, an amazing philanthropist, a military experience or a profile of your nonprofit organization, just remember what Pedro said.
If you are going to give someone props, give them props right now.
Looking over old letters, the kind that get read by actors in those Ken Burns documentaries, you have to wonder what's been lost due to the dominance of text messaging and email.
Will our children's grandchildren fondly scan their grandpa and grandma's Facebook messages with the same sense of wonderment that many of us feel toward handwritten letters?
Author Nancy Rial, a library media specialist for the Cambridge Public Schools in Massachusetts, just wrote a book about her Uncle Alan W. Lowell, who was killed during the Battle of Metz, shortly after landing on the beaches of Normandy, France.
The self-published "Alan's Letters" is exactly what it sounds like -- a compilation of his correspondence during World War II, interspersed with a detailed account of the actions of his comrades in the 66th Infantry Division.
"Alan represents all the young soldiers voices when he expresses a
yearning for a normal home life again after the war," Rial writes, "and an appreciation
of all that he has had as a youth growing up in America."
Although Rial was able to create an amazing tribute to her uncle by interspersing world history with the thoughts of an average guy, you need not have such a dramatic purpose to preserve your family letters.
Whether your uncle wrote love letters to your aunt from the foxhole or from his college dorm, it's all precious stuff that helps bring him back to life for the family who never got an opportunity to know him.
Even if you don't have an ambition to tell "the big picture," it makes sense to scan all your family letters and documents worth saving, sort them in chronological order, and publish them in a simple photo book.
We've used all of these on-line publishing companies and have been extremely satisfied with the quality of the printing and binding:
1. My Publisher
2. Blurb
3. Mac Photo Books
But if you do want to tell a bigger story with your letters and photographs, the Reel Profiles team can help you accomplish that. Writing thematic family history coffee table books -- using the best interview anecdotes and your favorite photos and documents -- is one of our specialties.
Ask about the coffee table book option when you are exploring our personal documentary services!
By Darren Garnick
Other than harboring a deep gratitude that the Good Guys won World War II, my personal connections to that chapter in history are peripheral. I have a few great uncles who fought for the Good Guys -- and I am feverishly documenting their service -- but I did not know any of them well.
So I was fascinated to observe how my 7-year-old son would respond to an overnight educational sleepover on the U.S.S. Massachusetts battleship, which saw action against both the Nazis and Japan.
Looking at a display of plastic models of enemy aircraft, my son asked: "Dad, did America win?"
For the most part, these Cub Scouts enjoyed the battleship as a playground. The canvas and steel Navy bunks were jungle gyms and the endless series of ladders and corridors comprised the Greatest Maze of All Time.
For the dads, those jungle gym beds were a chiropractor's fantasy. I would love to see what today's Navy sailors sleep on for comparison, but the World War II guys had to be much much tinier -- or they got over claustrophobia rather quickly.
For anyone lucky enough to have World War II veterans in their family, what an amazing experience it would be to follow them on a ship like this with a camcorder -- recording their dates with destiny for future generations. Wish I had footage like this of my uncles.
The WWII Navy vet on board to talk with the Cub Scouts surprised many adults with his frank and candid anti-heroism. "What was it like being on the battleship when it was under attack?" he was asked.
"I don't know. I couldn't hear anything," he shrugged, explaining that he was usually going over inventory in a supply room deep within the ship.
(Click here for more information on Battleship Cove's Maritime Camping Program)