Charlotte Rodrigues (‘JFK: One Day in America’ producer): New doc on the Kennedy assassination ‘isn’t about the conspiracy theories’ [Exclusive Video Interview]
November 22, 2023 marks the 60th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. To commemorate one of America’s most tragic days, National Geographic’s Emmy-winning series “One Day in America” returns with a three-part documentary entitled “JFK: One Day in America.” The series weaves together newly colorized archival footage with interviews from some of the last surviving witnesses to the events of that fateful day. Check out our exclusive video interview with series producer Charlotte Rodrigues above.
Rodrigues was initially hesitant to join the project considering the wealth of media regarding the Kennedy assassination. However, she says that the decision to avoid the subject of conspiracy theories and examine it from an emotional perspective sold her on the idea. “This isn’t about the conspiracy theories. That’s not the approach we wanted to take,” she says. “We really wanted to bring it to life in a very emotional way and a very immersive way, and I thought that approach was really interesting.”
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Part of that immersive feeling stems from the use of archival footage of the moments leading up to the assassination. The production team worked closely with The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza, a museum dedicated to the life and death of President Kennedy. The museum allowed the filmmakers to colorize some of the footage, something that had previously not been allowed. The painstaking process had a specific purpose. “I think there was something quite interesting about doing some of it colorized, some of it not,” Rodrigues says. “To remind the viewer that we’re in the past, but then actually bring certain scenes to life even more. I think that captivates the audience a bit more and makes it more relatable.”
The NatGeo series also features interviews with eyewitnesses to the event, including journalists, police officers and even two members of the Kennedy’s secret service detail. Rodrigues believes that those interviews are valuable not just from an emotional standpoint, but also in a historical sense. “We felt very privilege to be able to interview these people because we know that there’s only a handful left,” she argues. “They probably feel like they’ve been forgotten about and that their story doesn’t resonate or isn’t relatable anymore.” Those emotional interviews, Rodrigues says, are key in giving the series the immersive quality it has. “We didn’t want to feel like we were teaching people a history lesson,” she claims. “We wanted to take people back there emotionally in a very immersive way.”
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