Who Do You Think You Are? Dennis Cometti

2008, 52 Minutes

Popular sports commentator Dennis Cometti finds mystery, murder and a gift for the gab as he follows his family tree back to Australia’s settlement.

From Meekatharra in Western Australian to northern Italy, Dennis discovers not only the hardship his grandfather faced in the mines, but a rich Italian heritage, as well as solving a mystery surrounding the absence of his grandmother from family photographs, and the bitterness his father felt towards her.

But it is on Dennis’ maternal side that the story proves a real revelation, as he sets out to trace the feistiness common to women in his family. The journey is full of surprises–adultery, murder, tragedy and mayhem–and more than one shady character, much of it centred on the enigmatic Emma Hines, Dennis’ great great grandmother, and her forebears.

It is a journey that leaves him with a lifetime of anecdotes and an extended family he never imagined possible.

A Film Australia National Interest Program, Serendipity Productions, Artemis International production in association with ScreenWest and Lotterywest and SBS Independent. Format licensed by Wall to Wall Media Ltd. The Who Do You Think You Are? word mark and logo are trade marks of Wall to Wall Media Limited and are used under licence. © 2011 National Film and Sound Archive of Australia, Artemis International, Serendipity Productions, ScreenWest and Lotterywest, SBS Independent.

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