New Orleans Agenda
The video documentary Buried History: Finding Our Past debuts February 14, 2024, at New Orleans’ PBS affiliate WYES-TV, as part of its Black History Month Programming Schedule. The half-hour documentary takes viewers on a journey with Veteran Journalist Warren Bell who discovered unknown parts of his own family history, and lesser known (but important) aspects of NOLA’s unique muti-cultural history, after taking over a neglected family tomb at the historic St. Louis Cemetery II site.
Besides sharing his personal story, Bell introduces us to others who have reconnected to their own family stories at the neglected 200-year-old site rich in history but closed to the public since the COVID Pandemic. Viewers learn about important contributions to the city’s history and culture made by so many people interred there. Experts also showcase resources available to anybody wishing to start their own family research. That often begins with finding out where loved ones are buried or searching hundreds of years’ worth of notarial records.
The half-hour documentary was written, produced and narrated by Bell who also photographed most of the cemetery footage and images himself. Emmy Award Winning Director and Editor David M. Jones worked closely with Bell to render the finished documentary. Says Bell, whose S-E Louisiana Creole roots run deep – “My message is simple: the time to start asking questions of your elders is right NOW before they join the ancestors, lest you lose critical knowledge of how and why your own family (and YOURSELF) got here.”
Buried History: Finding Our Past will air February 14th and through the month of February. Produced with grant support from NOTCF, the New Orleans Tourism & Culture Fund.
Recommended For You.
Be the first to comment