I hope to attend this… details from the MoMI press release…

On Monday, February 4, at 7 pm, the Museum of the Moving Image's ongoing Changing the Picture series of screenings and discussions, which celebrates and explores the work of film and television artists of color, will present Making Roots, Making TV History – a discussion with Ben Vereen, Lou Gossett Jr., LeVar Burton, and Leslie Uggams (stars of the landmark television miniseries) on the show’s production and its long-lasting legacy.

The discussion will be moderated by Donald Thoms, Vice President of Programming for PBS.

This roundtable is in addition to Tongues Untied, True Tales Told on Monday, January 21, 4pm, which features the legendary Ruby Dee, S. Epatha Merkerson, and Barbara Montgomery (who will screen excerpts from her new film Mitote), in a “town hall” discussion about the past, present, and future of African American women in film and television (I announced this yesterday). 

Both series are presented in collaboration with Pioneers of Television, the four-part PBS series which premiered on WNET/Thirteen January 15, 2013.

The miniseries episode on Roots airs on February 5 at 8:00 p.m.

The miniseries Roots, which aired in 1977, was one of the most influential and highest rated television events of all time; the final episode had an audience of more than 100 million. Thirty-five years later, Roots still resonates within popular culture, having changed forever the way that African-Americans were depicted on television, and having a strong impact on the nation’s collective guilt about slavery, an issue that is strongly present in popular culture today, with the heated discussion around the films Lincoln and Django Unchained.

Tickets: $15 public / $9 Museum members / free for Silver Screen members.

Order online or call 718-777-6800 to reserve tickets.