SPECIAL SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA SCREENING OF THE REAL EVE

-- Two-hour special narrated by Danny Glover maps how one prehistoric womans mitochondrial DNA has been passed down to every human alive today -- - Scientists reveal findings about the route our ancestors took out of Africa 80,000 years ago -

LOS ANGELES, CA MARCH 15, 2003 - The UCLA James S. Coleman African Studies Center in partnership with Washington DC based Africa Society of the National Summit on Africa and Discovery Communications will host the official Southern California Screening of THE REAL EVE. Screening, scheduled for Saturday March 29, 2003 7pm at the UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History, will feature producer Paul Ashton, Steve
Burns, Executive Producer for Discovery and other invited guests.

Narrated by actor Danny Glover, THE REAL EVE reveals that a shared genetic heritage links every living person on earth. The program traces the expansion of modern humans throughout the world, from our fragile beginnings in Africa to our exodus through South Asia, down to Australia, up into Europe, and finally into the Americas. Filmed in nine countries on five continents, THE REAL EVE vividly recreates the ancient world in which this dramatic story took place.

In THE REAL EVE, top scientists combine genetic and archaeological evidence to explain what happened after early modern humans first left Africa. After sojourning in Yemen, southern Arabia, and India, our ancestors journeyed down to Malaysia and then across 100 miles of shark-infested waters to Australia. Once they reached the Middle East from the Arabian Gulf, descendents of the African group ultimately moved north into Europe (where they displaced the Neanderthals). They also spread north into Central Asia and China, enjoying the temperate climate until the Ice Age pushed them off the Central Asian plateau and further eastward. In providing new information about why our ancestors arrived in Europe so late rewrites European pre-history.

-end-