Posted on: CAMBELL Queries
Reply Here:
http://genconnect.rootsweb.com/gc/surnames/c/a/CAMBELL/queries/11
Surname: CAMBELL
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I am researching for a Canadian documentary company called Great North
Productions (GNP). I am trying to contact Campbell family members in regards
to a documentary we are currently producing called Going Home. I would
like to feature a Campbell in one of the episodes of going home, where
we will follow a Campbell to Inervary Castle to reconnect with their roots.
The following is the proposal for the Going Home series. Feel free to have
a read over and/or pass it on to anyone who may be interested. Thank you
for your time and have a great day. I look forward to hearing from you.
Jeremy Schmidt, Researcher
Great North Productions
3720 76th Ave
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6B2N9
Phone (780) 440-2022 Ext. 265
Fax (780) 440-3400
Email jeremy.schmidt(a)greatnorth.ab.ca
Website
www.greatnorth.ab.ca
I am working as a researcher for a Canadian company called Great North
Productions.
We a researching for a series called "Going Home", The series will be seen
on two channels, The Life Network, and the History Channel. The History
Channel wants a story with a historical spin, and the Life Network wants
a dramatic story. We want to incorporate both of these elements.
Going Home Series Overview
Going Home is a weekly, half-hour television series that will follow Canadian
families or individuals, the famous and not-so-famous, as they return to
the country of their family's origins-sometimes for the first time in their
lives, sometimes for the first time in generations, and sometimes, to renew
friendships with close friends and relatives. Going Home will present to
a national audience the varied multi-cultural facets of our country and
help Canadians understand where many of us came from-and, as importantly,
why we came. Combining travel, history and cultural exploration, Going
Home promises to be unique, informative, entertaining and participatory.
The series will be unpretentious and unpredictable. In true cinema viewer's
style, we will never know in advance what awaits our travelers. Viewers
watching Going Home will come to expect the unexpected.
Genealogy has become almost a sacred mission for tens of thousands of Canadians,
and millions of people worldwide. Canada's Centennial in 1967 and Alex
Haley's 1976 book Roots, fuelled earlier explosions in searching out family
trees. This latest phenomenon springs from the Internet. With only minimal
coaching, people are flocking to related web sites (there are over two
million-and counting) to transport themselves back in time. When the Mormons
set up their free Internet site in May 1999, it received a staggering 30
million electronic hits in its first day of operation.
Surprisingly, the most dedicated questions, according to a survey for American
Demographics magazine, are 35 to 44 years old, a group whose nomadic days
are over and who are often raising kids. They show a strong desire to reconnect
to their roots-to fill in the gaps.
The families or individuals who trace their heritage in episodes of Going
Home will be selected by means of electronic and print research. A small
production committee might screen short home videos submitted by interested
parties in which they explain why they want to return to their ancestral
homeland. These videotapes could become part of the opening sequence of
each episode, and would enable the producers to ensure that the subjects
of each episode are comfortable before the cameras and have engaging personalities.
Once the successful applicants have been selected, our documentary crew
will film them in Canada as they prepare for their trip and we will find
out what they expect to learn from their journey. We will then follow them
to their destination and document their experiences. We will come to learn
something about the land and the culture they left, find out why they (or
their forefathers) emigrated to Canada, and learn whether or not they now
think this was a wise decision. In some cases, we may arrange for our travelers
to be met by a local expert genealogist and/or historian who will have
been selected, as is done on the successful Antique Road Show series, for
their expertise in specific regions and time periods, and for their on-camera
presence and personality. The expert will then accompany the visitor back
to the region of his or her ancestry; explore both the history and the
contemporary reality of the area and attempt to make a connection with
the visitor's ancestral roots.
Each half-hour episode of Going Home will consist of one major documentary
segment in which we follow one family or individual back to the country
of their ancestry. This would be the centerpiece of each program. It could
be packaged with the video audition tapes and with interviews with the
subjects after they have returned from their trip. A studio host would
conduct these interviews, someone well recognized as an historian of note
and with a comfortable on-camera presence.
Great North Productions would like to pay for an individual to take a trip
to their homelands. I'd like is contact names and phone numbers of Canadians
that would like to take a trip to their homeland. Please reply if you have
any leads or people that we can follow up with. I am more than happy to
send information on Going Home and Great North Productions. This is a real
offer!!!! If you want to go back to your homeland and you have a story
to tell, or for more information feel free to contact me.
Ranked as Canada's leading producer of documentaries for 1998/99, Great
North Productions Inc. is living up to its mandate of creating high quality
Television programming with international scope and appeal. Based in
Edmonton, Alberta, Great North has operated for 13 years and has produced
nearly 300 hours of television programming. Great North programs have won
30 Alberta Film Awards, have been frequent finalists at the annual Hot
Docs
and Gemini Awards,
and have been recognized by the Charleston International Film Festival,
New
York Festivals, and the Emmy Awards.
Great North has produced for all major Canadian television networks, as
well as many specialty channels including Discovery Channel, History
Television and Life Network in Canada, and National Geographic Television
and The Learning Channel in the US. In addition, Great North has partnered
with prominent American and overseas production companies on diverse
documentaries.