FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 15, 2006
CONTACT: Bobbie Fisher, Corporate Communications, WHRO
757-889-9107, bobbie.fisher@whro.org
Debby Padgett, Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation
757-253-4175, deborah.padgett@jyf.virginia.gov
JAMESTOWN DOCUMENTARY TO AIR ON WHRO-TV DECEMBER 28
NORFOLK and WILLIAMSBURG, Va.--“Jamestown: Founding of America,” a joint production of WHRO Public Broadcasting for Hampton Roads and the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, will air on WHRO-TV 15 on Thursday, Dec. 28, at 9 p.m.
The 30-minute historical documentary chronicles the establishment of America’s first permanent English colony in Virginia in 1607, on the eve of its 400th anniversary. Narrated by renowned historian Clay Jenkinson, the program focuses on the Powhatan Indian, English and African cultures “cast together in a struggle for life” and on the legacies of Jamestown.
The camera follows a modern family on their visit at Jamestown Settlement, a living-history museum administered by the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, an agency of the Commonwealth of Virginia. The family’s interaction with historical interpreters at the museum’s re-created ships, Powhatan Indian village and James Fort and in gallery exhibits is interspersed with dramatized scenes that explore the Powhatan environment, English motivations for colonization, the difficult early years of the settlement, and the story of the first documented Africans in Virginia, who arrived in 1619.
The program also features interviews with historical experts from Historic Jamestowne, the original settlement site – Tonia Deetz Rock, statewide educational coordinator for APVA Preservation Virginia, and Karen Rehm, chief historian at Colonial National Historical Park – and with Linda Heywood, professor of African History and the history of the African Diaspora at Boston University, and Thomas Davidson, senior curator at the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation.
“Jamestown: Founding of America” is available to public television stations nationwide through the National Educational Telecommunications Association.
The Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation provided research information for “Jamestown: Founding of America” and furnished graphics and film footage of dramatized scenes. WHRO filmed interviews and the family visit to Jamestown Settlement. Martha Edwards of WHRO was executive producer, and Heather Hower of the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation was project manager.
The Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation/WHRO project was funded through in-kind contributions from the partners and financial support from the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, Inc., with grants from the Robins Foundation, AMERIGROUP Charitable Foundation, Virginia Natural Gas, Mr. and Mrs. F. Jay Ward, Mr. and Mrs. Charles A. Banks III, Dana and Marshall Acuff, Reginald N. Jones, Jeannie P. Baliles, and Mr. and Mrs. Paul D. Camp III.
“Working with the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation has provided an exceptional opportunity to leverage local and regional funds to address an internationally important event and share the value with the entire PBS system,” said John Heimerl, WHRO Chief Enterprise Officer.
“The partnership between WHRO and the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation has resulted in a production of outstanding quality,” said Joseph A. Gutierrez, Jr., Foundation senior director of museum operations and education. “It’s a major contribution to the body of broadcast work acknowledging the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown.”