Family Pictures USA

Southwest Florida

A Co-Production of Digital Diaspora Family Reunion, LLC & Independent Television Services. In Association with the Center for Asian American Media & Black Public Media. Presented by UNC-TV & WGCU.

FAMILY PICTURES USA visits Fort Myers and the Paradise Coast of Southwest Florida, a tropical region that stretches from Caloosahatchee River to the Everglades, where Native Americans, cattle ranchers, members of fishing communities and restaurateurs recount their family stories with pride. In rural Immokalee, we learn that Florida is still cattle country and meet former migrant workers who now own the companies that harvest produce.

Descendants of Seminole leader Osceola preserve their tribal way of life and pass down centuries-old traditions to their children. Here too, an African American family confronts the divisions of the past and moves forward as they uncover the story of their pioneering, bi-racial ancestor, and meet their white relatives. And in a surprise twist, a couple who successfully saved Estero Bay and formed the state’s first aquatic preserve meet the woman whose father tried to develop it.