‘Parts Unknown’ screening emotional
The last voice-over Anthony Bourdain did for “Parts Unknown” was a fitting one.
As a packed, emotional house discovered at the Tribeca screening of the show’s upcoming Kenya episode — the 12th and final season premiere featuring “United Shades of America” host W. Kamau Bell — Bourdain wanted to emphasize a point that has sometimes gotten lost in his work.
“I do my best,” he said in the voice-over about his travels around the world. “I look, I listen. But in the end, I know it’s my story. Not Kamau’s, not Kenya’s. Those stories have yet to be heard.”
Everyone on the panel — which included Bell, showrunner Sandy Zweig, and Bourdain’s longtime producing partners Chris Collins and Lydia Tenaglia — agreed that Bourdain’s priority on “Parts Unknown” and beyond was to step back and let the country and the people he was visiting take the spotlight.
Bourdain, 61, committed suicide June 8 in a hotel room in France.
Collins, who admitted that watching the new episodes is now “difficult,” described how Bourdain’s approach to making travel shows changed over the years.
“For him, it began as a ruse. Over time, it turned into a job. Then, it turned into a profession. Then, it turned into a life’s work.”