REEL SOUTH

Georgetown University sold hundreds of enslaved people to stave off bankruptcy, scattering families across the South, never to see each other again. With the help of DNA databases, their descendants are reconnecting six generations later. “Finding Us” is a portrait of four descendants who are using their unique talents to regrow the family trees felled nearly two centuries ago.

Surviving Cuban-American dissidents recall the early plans for the Bay of Pigs invasion, and how last minute changes made by the US government foreshadowed its failure.

63 years after the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, the surviving Cuban-American dissidents tell the fuller story. In detailed interviews with the men who fled Cuba only to return alongside US military forces, they narrate the calamity of the US siege and the trauma they faced as prisoners. By reliving the horrors of war and the fragility of service, these men fill a gap in the military record.

Surviving Cuban-American dissidents describe the harrowing battles of the Bay of Pigs invasion, including the “Highway of Death”.

Two Vietnam War veterans are reunited after decades of searching for one another.

In 1971, one of the worst industrial tragedies in U.S. history shook rural Southeast Georgia. The victims were predominantly Black women, manufacturing trip flares for the Vietnam War. Over 50 years later, survivors and first responders shed new light on the bravery and sacrifice of that day, and a grassroots campaign seeks to award the victims with the Congressional Gold Medal.

After being mistaken for the enemy by fellow U.S. forces during the Vietnam War, a Japanese-American veteran struggles to overcome his feelings of guilt and anger, find a sense of belonging, and reunite with the soldier from Alabama who saved his life.

Survivors and witnesses of the 1971 explosion at the Thiokol plant in rural Southeast Georgia recall the day that changed their lives forever.

Season 9 adds new depth to the records America keeps and who gets to define and shape our collective posterity. 10 films offer new perspectives on our shared military, health, and spiritual histories and bring forward voices and stories culled in the name of prosperity. Above all, each film showcases the power of human connection and the communities created in any aftermath.