BLACK TO OUR ROOTS

JACQUELINE OLIVE | CO-DIRECTOR, CO-PRODUCER & WRITER

Co-directed and co-produced by Jacqueline Olive and Tresubira Whitlow in 2007, Black To Our Roots tells the inspirational story of African American teens who travel from the inner-city of Atlanta to Ghana, West Africa, in search of a connection to their ancestral homeland. The award-winning, hour-long film broadcast on PBS WORLD in 2009 and features 17-year-old Sylvia Dorsey who’s determined to transcend her environment, learn more about African American history, and fill in the gaps in her identity. The film follows Sylvia across the Atlantic Ocean on a journey spanning four U.S. states and two continents.

Black To Our Roots highlights how far African American youth must sometimes go for a full sense of themselves, while answering questions that even DNA tests can’t, like “Will they be accepted in Ghana as brothers and sisters of a common ancestry?”  Viewers watch Sylvia bravely move forward, despite no easy answers.