There’s something about Al Roker that makes you feel like you know him, especially after his 33 years as an NBC anchor. And yet, there’s much more to him than just what he has accomplished in front of the camera. Apart from being America’s Sweetheart and favorite weatherman, Al Roker is a husband (married to the equally beloved Deborah Roberts), father, cancer survivor, author, and the founder of Al Roker Entertainment, an eye-opening and industry transforming producer of original shows, movies and digital content. The programming his entertainment company creates and supports is educational, informative and furthers cultural awareness and conversation.
Roker (who just turned 69 last month) was born and raised in New York City – and attended college at SUNY Oswego. He began his broadcasting career as a weather anchor in Syracuse, working in the industry for 15 years before his celebrated work on NBC’s Today show, where he has been since 1990. Over three plus decades in the public eye, Al Roker is more of a pillar than host as the most beloved weather anchor alive and is the “soul of the TODAY Show” as his co-host Savannah Guthrie recently called him. He has published a wide array of books with wide-ranging topics from fatherhood and family, to his weight loss journey, to a successful and unexpected turn toward fiction – recently authoring multiple murder mysteries. As the head of Al Roker Entertainment, he’s produced a myriad of shows that shine a light onto law enforcement agencies, young women’s empowerment, science, and more – and A.R.E. most recently released Gaining Ground: The Fight for Black Land; a riveting and vitally important documentary on the stolen legacy of black farming in America.
The film details how, unbeknownst to many today, more than 20 million acres of farmland were taken from the black communities in America between 1910 and 1970, with many black landowners being bullied even murdered for their land. With Heirs property disputes and some land being owned by hundreds of relatives, generations are still being manipulated and cheated out of countless acres of land in favor of cash. However, as the film repeatedly points out, “you can always make more money; but you can’t make more land.” Land, the film reminds us, in its finite nature and its literal ability to bear fruit, is far more valuable than quick cash. Thankfully due to efforts made by this film and several cooperatives and coalitions, more than 3,000,000 acres have recently been restored to rightful owners and heirs.
The film’s director Eternal Polk says it took just seven or eight months to film (for perspective: the average time to film a documentary is ten years), and the process culminated not just with the film, but with a new coalition formed by John Deere (who sponsored the film). This coalition, called LEAP, is made up of John Deere, The Thurgood Marshall College fund, and The National Black Growers Council. It aims to use the collective influence of these organizations to support smaller institutions dedicated to helping people of color increase their ownership of farmland in the United States. The film has had a stellar run at countless festivals and to date has won four awards including Best Documentary at the Filmteenth International Film Festival in Bethesda, Maryland, and the Jury Prize for Feature Documentary at Essence Film Festival in New Orleans, Louisiana. It was recently screened at the DC Black Film Festival, and at Bronzelens in Atlanta, respectively. I saw it when it was spotlit by TribecaX with a panel conversation featuring Al, John Deere executive Mara Downing, and Gaining Ground Director Eternal Polk, where I had the pleasure of speaking with them for a few moments about the film and what’s next for Al Roker Entertainment. What was so remarkable from our brief conversation was the exemplary allyship and teamwork displayed by all involved.
Al shared of the collaboration:
“The support [from John Deere] we had really made the difference. It wasn’t, ‘okay, here’s, here’s our brand, here’s what we need’. It was no, here’s our brand. How can we help? How can we tell this story that made a difference? That’s what they did.”
Eternal adds that John Deere would look at footage without giving notes or any agenda giving them tremendous freedom to focus on the farmers, the history and to just tell this important story:
“It was really like for this to be my first feature documentary, it is a very unusual experience to go and say, ‘Just go tell the story. You told us what you wanna do now go do it.’ And then when we were showing the rough cuts, you know the notes, we were getting ready for like a couple pages of notes and all we got was like, ‘we really like that shot.’
I said, ‘That’s the note? That’s not a note!’’’
Speaking from John Deere’s perspective, Mara says about the key players in the project:
“I think there was just a mutual level of trust between the two organizations, and we both are very mission driven or purpose driven. I think you say mission driven, we say very purpose driven here at John Deere. Everything we do, it’s not about John Deere. There’s a hero in [this] story…our customers are our heroes. In this case, the heroes are the landowners who lost, have either lost access or lost land, don’t have their title land; I think the beauty comes to the story …because of the people.’’
Eternal interjects:
“I have to take that back. There was [one] directive: nobody’s wearing John Deere stuff. That was the directive, we don’t want to see John Deere stuff to the point where I told my camera people like, don’t shoot anything John Deere or sport it.’’
Al adds: “If the equipment was there, it was there. With the Deere company, our programming mantra is this would happen whether we were there or not [product or equipment placement] Yes, there are a couple of shots of John Deere. They happened to be there. I mean, that’s what equipment was used, right?’’
Eternal echoes:
“When [John Deere leadership] saw other competitors’ equipment, it wasn’t like ‘take that shot out.’ It wasn’t any of that. It was like, yeah – be authentic and tell an authentic story.’’
I asked what’s being done to preserve and restore the land and promote farming for the next generations?
Mara Downing says:
“Through the coalition John Deere is funding (LEAP), some legal terms really bolster the staff at the Center for Property and the Federation cooperatives and we’re hosting a number of seminars so people who are impacted can sit forward and identify themselves as in need, so we can help more people. That’s part of the challenge is identifying who needs the help. So that’s first and foremost. The other thing is, you know, we’re exploring how we expand beyond just black landowners. How do we also expand? You know, we talked about Hispanic land owners and there are references to native people, Native Americans and others also are impacted by this issue. And so that will help several underrepresented groups.’’
It’s clear beyond simply land acknowledgment that real action and investing in communities is key to real reparations and ensuring that affected communities have the tools to thrive.
Reflecting on the lost land and legacy of black Americans and the forgotten history of black farmers is heartbreaking but there are a myriad of organizations highlighted in Gaining Ground that are restoring lands to rightful owners, protecting families and sowing the spark in a new generation of black farmers these include: The National Black Growers Council, The New York City Community Garden Coalition, the Thurgood Marshall College fund, Black Urban Growers (Bugs),The Black Farmer Fund, Center For Heirs Property Preservation, and the aforementioned LEAP.
Gaining Ground is just one piece of trailblazing content with more coming down the pike for Al Roker Entertainment.
Al shares: “We’ve got another [award-winning] documentary out right now called Kenyatta: Do Not Wait to Return about a young, gay black state senator in Pennsylvania from the poorest district in Pennsylvania. Who primaries John Fetterman for the US Senate, he lost, but he’s a rising star in the Democratic Party. And it’s just a really personal look, at a campaign, from different communities that are underrepresented. And another thing we’re proud of, we just announced partnering with PBS Kids. We have a series called Weather Hunters about an African American family whose father just happens to be a bald black weatherman…’’
He jokes: “I don’t know anybody like that…!’’ He adds that the daughter is the focal point of the series.
Al Roker is an integrity-driven family man using his very public platform, stealth media mogul status, and stellar reputation to elevate unknown stories, celebrate marginalized perspectives, and to support the next generations; his contributions may make us wish for more people like Al Roker in the world, but he also shows us when you are of service and a good steward, doing great work with heart; one great Al Roker is more than enough.
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