I have been trying to identify this documentary/show for nearly 20 years.
I saw clips of it on Oprah sometime around the mid-2000s, but I believe the actual documentary may have been from Discovery Channel, PBS, National Geographic, or something similar.
What I remember:
- An American family of four (mom, dad, daughter around 12, son around 9–10)
- I THINK the mother worked at a bank
- The family won some kind of contest/opportunity to live with a remote African village/tribe for several months
-the mom thought they would be excited but they were horrified
- The young son was very upset at first and heavily into video games
- When they first arrived he asked something like: “Can we still order pizza?”
- At one point the boy threw something into the village well or water source, which could have contaminated it and caused a serious issue for all of the water used by the village
- The father became angry, but the village elder and leader did not
- Instead, the elder took the boy on a long walk and calmly talked to him
- I specifically remember a cinematic shot of the elder (tall, carrying a walking stick, wearing a sarong over his body ) and the boy walking away from the camera together
- By the end of the documentary the boy was emotionally attached to the elder, the village that became his family, and he cried because he did not want to leave
This scene affected me deeply and I’ve searched for this documentary for years.
Does anyone remember this?