By Valerie Milano
Beverly Hills, CA (The Hollywood Times) 9/27/17 – THE STORY OF US WITH MORGAN FREEMAN is a six-part National Geographic Channel docuseries that follows Freeman’s global journey to uncover the fundamental forces that keep our societies together, while revealing the common humanity that lies inside each of us. The show is produced by Freeman’s Revelations Entertainment.
Each of the six hour long episodes from THE STORY OF US will include a single fundamental force or topic, such as strength of belief, the thirst for power, how love shapes us, the role conflict plays in our lives, the spirit of rebellion, and the concept of freedom.
Morgan Freeman spoke at length about THE STORY OF US at the TCA Press Tour panel hosted on Monday, July 25th, 2017 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Freeman was joined by fellow executive producers Lori McCreary and James Younger, the team behind predecessor series THE STORY OF GOD, along with subjects of the doc: Albert Woodfox, former prison inmate and “Angola Three” member; Joshua Coombes, founder of social campaign #DoSomethingForNothing; and Megan Phelps-Roper, a former member of the anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church.
“Your task in life is probably to do as much as you can for others for nothing,” said Freeman, echoing the precepts of Nelson Mandela.
(Source: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images North America)
“You can definitely do something today!” added Coombes. Big problems such as homelessness cannot be solved overnight, but the actions we take every day do start to add up.
“In film, I just need to belong,” said Freeman. “I grew up in the movies, watching them, and not seeing enough of me, none of me. So my film career is actually predicated on being able to see me. That doesn’t cross over to this line of fire. This is a completely different set of rules, I guess, I can use to live by.”
Realizing that he had just talked with someone from the other side of the world who was saying pretty much the same thing as he was came as a revelation to Freeman while making THE STORY OF US. “They are just using a different language!” he exclaimed.
Founder of #dosomethingfornothing Joshua Coombes of ‘The Story of Us with Morgan Freeman’
(July 24, 2017 – Source: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images North America)
Getting in touch with the common humanity that binds us all was perhaps the biggest benefit to the many talents who produced THE STORY OF US WITH MORGAN FREEMAN, which premieres on Wednesday, October 11th on the National Geographic Channel. Here’s hoping the show succeeds in its honorable mission to incorporate more of “them” into “us”!
McCreary had high praise for the boundless curiosity shown by the much-loved Morgan Freeman throughout the one on one interviews in THE STORY OF US. “I think that without someone like Morgan, who can really get to the center of these wonderful people, it might not be as impactful, and with him, it’s impactful,” she said.
