National Archives Experience to Host October Public Programs
Press Release · Friday, October 14, 2005

Washington, DC…The National Archives will host three exceptional public programs this October. The Ballad of Bering Strait and "Destination America with David Grubin" are part of an ongoing partnership between the Charles Guggenheim Center for the Documentary Film at the National Archives and the Center for the National Archives Experience. All programs will be held in the William G. McGowan Theater of the National Archives, which is located on Constitution Avenue and 7th Street, NW, and is fully accessible. The programs are free and open to the public. Reservations are required only where noted and can be made by emailing public.program@nara.gov or calling 202-501-5000.

The Ballad of Bering Strait
Friday, October 14 at 7 PM
The Charles Guggenheim Center for the Documentary Film at the National Archives and the Center for the National Archives Experience present this 2003 cinéma-vérité documentary which follows seven Russian teenagers who came to America to become country music stars. In July 1999, the band, Bering Strait, began recording their first album in Nashville. Over the next two-and-a-half years Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Nina Gilden Seavey chronicled the band's response to the twists and turns of the recording industry, their rehearsals for a tour, their debut concert at the Grand Ole Opry, tense discussions about the course of their career with their managers, and their adaptation to life in America. The filmmakers also traveled with the band members to their homes in Obninsk, Russia, and to their music conservatories in Moscow, documenting how these two girls and five boys became so adept at playing American country music. The video culminates with the band's rousing concert performance on stage at Wolf Trap National Park, signaling the success of their amazing cultural fusion/coming of age journey in America. Introduced by director Nina Gilden Seavey. (98 min.)

Destination America with David Grubin
Friday, October 21 at 7 PM
The Charles Guggenheim Center for the Documentary Film at the National Archives and The Center for the National Archives Experience are proud to host an evening with documentary producer David Grubin, who will discuss the new PBS documentary series Destination America. From the time the US government began keeping official records in 1820, more than 70 million people have immigrated to the United States. The migration began as a trickle, and the trickle became a flood - the largest migration to a single country in human history. The new PBS documentary series Destination America is organized around some of the driving forces that have compelled individuals to immigrate to America for centuries and have remained constant throughout history - economic opportunity, religious freedom and artistic expression. In addition, the series looks at the particular forces that drive women to come to America in search of opportunity and the basic human rights they had been denied in their homelands. Producer David Grubin will present clips from the series and discuss the project's creation. Reservations are required.

Operation Pedro Pan
Thursday, October 27 at 7 PM
From 1960 to 1962, in a program partially financed by the U.S. government, 14,048 Cuban minors arrived in Miami, sent to America by parents terrified that the new communist government would ship their children to Soviet work camps. Operation Pedro Pan was the largest recorded exodus of unaccompanied minors in the Western Hemisphere. Elly Choval, Founder and Chairperson, Operation Pedro Pan, Inc., will moderate a panel discussion between three former Pedro Pan refugees. The panelists will relate their experiences being Pedro Pan children and how it affected their lives. The Lost Apple (28 minutes), which was produced by the United States Information Agency to document the mission and legacy of Operation Pedro Pan, will be screened. Reservations are required.

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For more information, the press may contact the National Archives Public Affairs Office at 202-501-5526.

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