Ken Burns
Encyclopedia
Kenneth Lauren "Ken" Burns (born July 29, 1953) is an American director and producer of documentary film
s, known for his style of using archival footage and photographs. Among his productions are The Civil War (1990), Baseball (1994), Jazz (2001), The War
(2007), and The National Parks: America's Best Idea
(2009).
Burns' documentaries have been nominated for two Academy Awards, and have won seven Emmy Award
s, among other honors.
, New York City
, New York
, according to his official website, though some sources give Ann Arbor
, Michigan
, and some, including The New York Times
, give both Brooklyn and Ann Arbor. The son of Lyla Smith (née Tupper) Burns, a biotechnician, and Robert Kyle Burns, at the time a graduate student in cultural anthropology
at Columbia University
, in Manhattan
. Ken Burns' brother is the documentary filmmaker Ric Burns
.
Burns' academic family moved frequently, and lived in Saint-Véran
, France
; Newark
, Delaware
; and Ann Arbor, where his father taught at the University of Michigan
. Burns' mother was diagnosed with breast cancer
when Burns was 3, and died when he was 11, a circumstance that he said helped shape his career; he credited his father-in-law, a psychologist, with a signal insight: "He told me that my whole work was an attempt to make people long gone come back alive.". Well-read as a child, he absorbed the family encyclopedia, preferring history to fiction. Upon receiving an 8 mm film
movie camera for his 17th birthday, he shot a documentary about an Ann Arbor factory. Turning down reduced tuition at the University of Michigan, he attended the new Hampshire College
, an alternative school in Amherst
, Massachusetts
with no grades or attendance requirements. He worked in a record store to pay his tuition.
Studying under photographers Jerome Liebling
and Elaine Mayes
and others, Burns earned his Bachelor of Arts
degree in film studies and design in 1975. At 22, upon graduation, he co-founded with two college friends Florentine Films in Walpole
, New Hampshire
. As of 2010, there is a Ken Burns Wing at the Jerome Liebling Center for Film, Photography and Video at Hampshire College. He worked as a cinematographer
for the BBC
, Italian television, and others, and in 1977, after having completed some documentary short films, he began work on adapting David McCullough
's book The Great Bridge, about the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge
. Developing a signature style of documentary filmmaking in which he "adopted the technique of cutting rapidly from one still picture to another in a fluid, linear fashion. He then pepped up the visuals with 'first hand' narration gleaned from contemporary writings and recited by top stage and screen actors", he made the feature documentary Brooklyn Bridge (1981) which earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary and ran on PBS in the United States.
Following another documentary, The Shakers: Hands to Work, Hearts to God
(1984), Burns was Oscar-nominated again for The Statue of Liberty (1985).
on subjects as diverse politicians (Thomas Jefferson
, 1997), sports (Baseball, 1994, updated with 10th Inning, 2010), music (Jazz, 2001), arts and letters (Thomas Hart Benton
, 1988, Mark Twain
, 2001), historical technology and mass media (Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio
, 1991), and war (the 15-hour World War II
documentary The War
, 2007, and the 11-hour The Civil War, 1990, which All Media Guide
says "many consider his 'chef d'oeuvre'").
, New Hampshire
, with his second wife, Julie Deborah Brown, whom he married on October 18, 2003.
, with almost $40,000 in political donations. In 2008, the Democratic National Committee
chose Burns to produce the introductory video for Senator Edward Kennedy
's August 2008 speech to the Democratic National Convention
, a video described by Politico as a "Burns-crafted tribute casting him [Kennedy] as the modern Ulysses bringing his party home to port." In August 2009 Kennedy died, and Burns produced a short eulogy video at his funeral. In endorsing Barack Obama
for the U.S. presidency in December 2007, Burns compared Obama to Abraham Lincoln
. He plans to be a regular contributor to Keith Olbermann
's Countdown show on Current TV
.
Burns is the recipient of more than 20 honorary degrees.
The Civil War has received more than 40 major film and television awards, including two Emmy Award
s, two Grammy Award
s, the Producer of the Year Award from the Producers Guild of America
, a People's Choice Award, a Peabody Award
, a duPont-Columbia Award
, a D.W. Griffith Award, and the $50,000 Lincoln Prize
.
", which was performed for the film by the musician Jay Ungar
. One critic noted, "One of the most memorable things about The Civil War was its haunting, repeated violin melody, whose thin, yearning notes seemed somehow to sum up all the pathos of that great struggle."
Burns often gives "life" to still photographs by slowly zooming in on subjects of interest and panning from one subject to another. For example, in a photograph of a baseball team, he might slowly pan across the faces of the players and come to rest on the player who is the subject of the narrator. This technique, possible in many professional and home software applications, is termed "The Ken Burns Effect
" in Apple's iPhoto
and iMovie
software applications.
As a museum retrospective noted, "His PBS specials [are] strikingly out of step with the visual pyrotechnics and frenetic pacing of most reality-based TV programming, relying instead on techniques that are literally decades old, although Burns reintegrates these constituent elements into a wholly new and highly complex textual arrangement."
In a 2011 interview, Burns stated that he admires and is influenced by filmmaker Errol Morris
.
Future releases
Under Burns's name only
Short films
Film roles
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
s, known for his style of using archival footage and photographs. Among his productions are The Civil War (1990), Baseball (1994), Jazz (2001), The War
The War (documentary)
The War is a 2007 American seven-part documentary television mini-series about World War II from the perspective of the United States that premiered on September 23, 2007...
(2007), and The National Parks: America's Best Idea
The National Parks: America's Best Idea
The National Parks: America's Best Idea is a 2009 documentary film for television, DVD and companion book by director/producer Ken Burns and producer/writer Dayton Duncan which features the United States National Park system and traces the system's history...
(2009).
Burns' documentaries have been nominated for two Academy Awards, and have won seven Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
s, among other honors.
Early life and career
Ken Burns was born in 1953 in BrooklynBrooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, according to his official website, though some sources give Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Ann Arbor is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Washtenaw County. The 2010 census places the population at 113,934, making it the sixth largest city in Michigan. The Ann Arbor Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 344,791 as of 2010...
, Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
, and some, including The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, give both Brooklyn and Ann Arbor. The son of Lyla Smith (née Tupper) Burns, a biotechnician, and Robert Kyle Burns, at the time a graduate student in cultural anthropology
Cultural anthropology
Cultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans, collecting data about the impact of global economic and political processes on local cultural realities. Anthropologists use a variety of methods, including participant observation,...
at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, in Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
. Ken Burns' brother is the documentary filmmaker Ric Burns
Ric Burns
Ric Burns is an American documentary filmmaker and writer. He has written, directed and produced historical documentaries for nearly 20 years, beginning with his collaboration on the celebrated PBS series The Civil War , which he produced with his older brother Ken Burns and wrote with Geoffrey C...
.
Burns' academic family moved frequently, and lived in Saint-Véran
Saint-Véran
Saint-Véran is a commune in the Hautes-Alpes department in southeastern France in the Queyras Regional Natural Park.-Geography:Saint-Véran, located in the French Alps is the most elevated commune of the French Republic...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
; Newark
Newark, Delaware
Newark is an American city in New Castle County, Delaware, west-southwest of Wilmington. According to the 2010 Census, the population of the city is 31,454. Newark is the home of the University of Delaware.- History :...
, Delaware
Delaware
Delaware is a U.S. state located on the Atlantic Coast in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It is bordered to the south and west by Maryland, and to the north by Pennsylvania...
; and Ann Arbor, where his father taught at the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
. Burns' mother was diagnosed with breast cancer
Breast cancer
Breast cancer is cancer originating from breast tissue, most commonly from the inner lining of milk ducts or the lobules that supply the ducts with milk. Cancers originating from ducts are known as ductal carcinomas; those originating from lobules are known as lobular carcinomas...
when Burns was 3, and died when he was 11, a circumstance that he said helped shape his career; he credited his father-in-law, a psychologist, with a signal insight: "He told me that my whole work was an attempt to make people long gone come back alive.". Well-read as a child, he absorbed the family encyclopedia, preferring history to fiction. Upon receiving an 8 mm film
8 mm film
8 mm film is a motion picture film format in which the filmstrip is eight millimeters wide. It exists in two main versions: the original standard 8mm film, also known as regular 8 mm or Double 8 mm, and Super 8...
movie camera for his 17th birthday, he shot a documentary about an Ann Arbor factory. Turning down reduced tuition at the University of Michigan, he attended the new Hampshire College
Hampshire College
Hampshire College is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1965 as an experiment in alternative education, in association with four other colleges in the Pioneer Valley: Amherst College, Smith College, Mount Holyoke College, and the University of Massachusetts...
, an alternative school in Amherst
Amherst, Massachusetts
Amherst is a town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States in the Connecticut River valley. As of the 2010 census, the population was 37,819, making it the largest community in Hampshire County . The town is home to Amherst College, Hampshire College, and the University of Massachusetts...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
with no grades or attendance requirements. He worked in a record store to pay his tuition.
Studying under photographers Jerome Liebling
Jerome Liebling
Jerome Liebling was an American photographer, filmmaker, and teacher.He studied photography under Walter Rosenblum and Paul Strand, and joined New York's famed Photo League...
and Elaine Mayes
Elaine Mayes
Elaine Mayes is an American photographer.Known for her portraits of San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury residents in 1967-8 and for her iconic images of rock and roll performers in the late 1960s, Mayes' subject matter has also included landscapes and conceptual projects including her series,...
and others, Burns earned his Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
degree in film studies and design in 1975. At 22, upon graduation, he co-founded with two college friends Florentine Films in Walpole
Walpole, New Hampshire
Walpole is a town in Cheshire County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 3,734 at the 2010 census.The town's central settlement, where 605 people resided at the 2010 census, is defined as the Walpole census-designated place , and is east of New Hampshire Route 12...
, New Hampshire
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...
. As of 2010, there is a Ken Burns Wing at the Jerome Liebling Center for Film, Photography and Video at Hampshire College. He worked as a cinematographer
Cinematographer
A cinematographer is one photographing with a motion picture camera . The title is generally equivalent to director of photography , used to designate a chief over the camera and lighting crews working on a film, responsible for achieving artistic and technical decisions related to the image...
for the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, Italian television, and others, and in 1977, after having completed some documentary short films, he began work on adapting David McCullough
David McCullough
David Gaub McCullough is an American author, narrator, historian, and lecturer. He is a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award and a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States' highest civilian award....
's book The Great Bridge, about the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge
Brooklyn Bridge
The Brooklyn Bridge is one of the oldest suspension bridges in the United States. Completed in 1883, it connects the New York City boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn by spanning the East River...
. Developing a signature style of documentary filmmaking in which he "adopted the technique of cutting rapidly from one still picture to another in a fluid, linear fashion. He then pepped up the visuals with 'first hand' narration gleaned from contemporary writings and recited by top stage and screen actors", he made the feature documentary Brooklyn Bridge (1981) which earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary and ran on PBS in the United States.
Following another documentary, The Shakers: Hands to Work, Hearts to God
The Shakers: Hands to Work, Hearts to God
The Shakers: Hands to Work, Hearts to God is Ken Burns's second film, released in 1984.Narrated by David McCullough, this hour-long documentary features interviews with several living Shakers and with historians and philosophers....
(1984), Burns was Oscar-nominated again for The Statue of Liberty (1985).
Later life and career
He went on to a long, successful career directing and producing well-received television documentaries and documentary miniseriesMiniseries
A miniseries , in a serial storytelling medium, is a television show production which tells a story in a limited number of episodes. The exact number is open to interpretation; however, they are usually limited to fewer than a whole season. The term "miniseries" is generally a North American term...
on subjects as diverse politicians (Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson (documentary)
Thomas Jefferson is a 1997 documentary directed and produced by Ken Burns. It covers the life and times of Thomas Jefferson, the 3rd President of the United States....
, 1997), sports (Baseball, 1994, updated with 10th Inning, 2010), music (Jazz, 2001), arts and letters (Thomas Hart Benton
Thomas Hart Benton (painter)
Thomas Hart Benton was an American painter and muralist. Along with Grant Wood and John Steuart Curry, he was at the forefront of the Regionalist art movement. His fluid, almost sculpted paintings showed everyday scenes of life in the United States...
, 1988, Mark Twain
Mark Twain (documentary)
Mark Twain is a documentary film on the life of Mark Twain produced by Ken Burns in 2001. Burns captures both the public and private persona of Mark Twain from his birth to his death. The film was narrated by Keith David and the voice of Mark Twain was provided by Kevin Conway....
, 2001), historical technology and mass media (Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio
Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio
Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio is a non-fiction book by Tom Lewis, a history of radio in the United States, published by HarperCollins in 1991. The book was adapted into both a 1992 documentary film by Ken Burns and a 1992 radio drama written and directed by David Ossman...
, 1991), and war (the 15-hour World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
documentary The War
The War (documentary)
The War is a 2007 American seven-part documentary television mini-series about World War II from the perspective of the United States that premiered on September 23, 2007...
, 2007, and the 11-hour The Civil War, 1990, which All Media Guide
All Media Guide
All Media Guide , is the company which owns and maintains Allmusic, Allgame and Allmovie. AMG was founded in 1990 by popular-culture archivist Michael Erlewine....
says "many consider his 'chef d'oeuvre'").
Personal life
In 1982, Burns married Amy Stechler, with whom he had two daughters, Sarah and Lily, born circa 1983 and 1987, respectively. That marriage ended in divorce. As of 2011, Burns resides in WalpoleWalpole, New Hampshire
Walpole is a town in Cheshire County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 3,734 at the 2010 census.The town's central settlement, where 605 people resided at the 2010 census, is defined as the Walpole census-designated place , and is east of New Hampshire Route 12...
, New Hampshire
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...
, with his second wife, Julie Deborah Brown, whom he married on October 18, 2003.
Politics
Burns is a longtime supporter of the Democratic PartyDemocratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
, with almost $40,000 in political donations. In 2008, the Democratic National Committee
Democratic National Committee
The Democratic National Committee is the principal organization governing the United States Democratic Party on a day to day basis. While it is responsible for overseeing the process of writing a platform every four years, the DNC's central focus is on campaign and political activity in support...
chose Burns to produce the introductory video for Senator Edward Kennedy
Ted Kennedy
Edward Moore "Ted" Kennedy was a United States Senator from Massachusetts and a member of the Democratic Party. Serving almost 47 years, he was the second most senior member of the Senate when he died and is the fourth-longest-serving senator in United States history...
's August 2008 speech to the Democratic National Convention
Democratic National Convention
The Democratic National Convention is a series of presidential nominating conventions held every four years since 1832 by the United States Democratic Party. They have been administered by the Democratic National Committee since the 1852 national convention...
, a video described by Politico as a "Burns-crafted tribute casting him [Kennedy] as the modern Ulysses bringing his party home to port." In August 2009 Kennedy died, and Burns produced a short eulogy video at his funeral. In endorsing Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
for the U.S. presidency in December 2007, Burns compared Obama to Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
. He plans to be a regular contributor to Keith Olbermann
Keith Olbermann
Keith Theodore Olbermann is an American political commentator and writer. He has been the chief news officer of the Current TV network and the host of Current TV's weeknight political commentary program, Countdown with Keith Olbermann, since June 20, 2011...
's Countdown show on Current TV
Current TV
Current TV, or Current, is a media company led by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and businessman Joel Hyatt. Comcast owns a ten percent stake of Current's parent company, Current Media LLC....
.
Awards and honors
- 1982 nomination, Academy Award for Documentary Feature: Brooklyn Bridge (1981)
- 1986 nomination, Academy Award for Documentary Feature: The Statue of Liberty (1985)
Burns is the recipient of more than 20 honorary degrees.
The Civil War has received more than 40 major film and television awards, including two Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
s, two Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
s, the Producer of the Year Award from the Producers Guild of America
Producers Guild of America
Producers Guild of America is a trade organization representing television producers, film producers and New Media producers in the United States. The PGA's membership includes over 4,700 members of the producing establishment worldwide...
, a People's Choice Award, a Peabody Award
Peabody Award
The George Foster Peabody Awards recognize distinguished and meritorious public service by radio and television stations, networks, producing organizations and individuals. In 1939, the National Association of Broadcasters formed a committee to recognize outstanding achievement in radio broadcasting...
, a duPont-Columbia Award
DuPont-Columbia Award
The Alfred I. duPont–Columbia University Award is an American award that honors excellence in broadcast journalism. The awards, administered since 1968 by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York City, are considered a broadcast equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize, another...
, a D.W. Griffith Award, and the $50,000 Lincoln Prize
Lincoln Prize
The Lincoln Prize, endowed by Richard Gilder and Lewis Lehrman and administered by the Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College, has been awarded annually since 1991 for the best non-fiction historical work of the year on the American Civil War. It is named for U.S...
.
Style
Burns frequently incorporates simple musical leitmotifs or melodies. For example, his acclaimed The Civil War features a distinctive violin melody throughout, "Ashokan FarewellAshokan Farewell
"Ashokan Farewell" is a piece of music composed by Jay Ungar in 1982. It has served as a goodnight or farewell waltz at the annual Ashokan Fiddle & Dance Camps, run by the composer and his wife, at the lakefront campus of the State University of New York at New Paltz...
", which was performed for the film by the musician Jay Ungar
Jay Ungar
Jay Ungar is an American folk musician and composer. -Biography:Ungar was born in the Bronx , the son of immigrant Jewish parents from Eastern Europe. He frequented Greenwich Village music venues during his formative period in the 1960s...
. One critic noted, "One of the most memorable things about The Civil War was its haunting, repeated violin melody, whose thin, yearning notes seemed somehow to sum up all the pathos of that great struggle."
Burns often gives "life" to still photographs by slowly zooming in on subjects of interest and panning from one subject to another. For example, in a photograph of a baseball team, he might slowly pan across the faces of the players and come to rest on the player who is the subject of the narrator. This technique, possible in many professional and home software applications, is termed "The Ken Burns Effect
Ken Burns Effect
The Ken Burns effect is a popular name for a type of panning and zooming effect used in video production from still imagery.The name derives from extensive use of the technique by American documentarian Ken Burns...
" in Apple's iPhoto
IPhoto
iPhoto is a digital photograph manipulation software application developed by Apple Inc. and released with every Macintosh personal computer as part of the iLife suite of digital life management applications...
and iMovie
IMovie
iMovie is a proprietary video editing software application which allows Mac, iPod Touch 4th generation, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, and iPad 2 users to edit their own home movies. It was originally released by Apple in 1999 as a Mac OS 8 application bundled with the first FireWire-enabled consumer Apple...
software applications.
As a museum retrospective noted, "His PBS specials [are] strikingly out of step with the visual pyrotechnics and frenetic pacing of most reality-based TV programming, relying instead on techniques that are literally decades old, although Burns reintegrates these constituent elements into a wholly new and highly complex textual arrangement."
In a 2011 interview, Burns stated that he admires and is influenced by filmmaker Errol Morris
Errol Morris
Errol Mark Morris is an American director. In 2003, The Guardian put him seventh in its list of the world's 40 best directors. Also in 2003, his film The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.-Early life and...
.
Filmography
- Brooklyn Bridge (1981)
- The Shakers: Hands to Work, Hearts to GodThe Shakers: Hands to Work, Hearts to GodThe Shakers: Hands to Work, Hearts to God is Ken Burns's second film, released in 1984.Narrated by David McCullough, this hour-long documentary features interviews with several living Shakers and with historians and philosophers....
(1984) - The Statue of Liberty (1985)
- Huey LongHuey Long (documentary)Huey Long is a documentary film on the life and career of Huey Long. It was directed by Ken Burns and produced by Ken Burns and Richard Kilberg in 1985. The film first aired on October 15, 1986. The film includes interviews with Russell B. Long and Robert Penn Warren. It was narrated by historian...
(1985) - The CongressThe Congress (film)The Congress is a 1988 documentary film directed by Emmy Award-winning director Ken Burns. The Florentine Films production, which focuses on the United States Congress, aired on PBS in 1989. Narrated by David McCullough, the documentary features use of photographs, paintings, and film from sessions...
(1988) - Thomas Hart BentonThomas Hart Benton (painter)Thomas Hart Benton was an American painter and muralist. Along with Grant Wood and John Steuart Curry, he was at the forefront of the Regionalist art movement. His fluid, almost sculpted paintings showed everyday scenes of life in the United States...
(1988) - The Civil War (1990)
- Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made RadioEmpire of the Air: The Men Who Made RadioEmpire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio is a non-fiction book by Tom Lewis, a history of radio in the United States, published by HarperCollins in 1991. The book was adapted into both a 1992 documentary film by Ken Burns and a 1992 radio drama written and directed by David Ossman...
(1991) - Baseball (1994), updated with the 10th Inning (2010)
- Thomas JeffersonThomas Jefferson (documentary)Thomas Jefferson is a 1997 documentary directed and produced by Ken Burns. It covers the life and times of Thomas Jefferson, the 3rd President of the United States....
(1997) - Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of DiscoveryLewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of DiscoveryLewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery is a 1997 documentary film directed by Ken Burns. Its subject is the Lewis and Clark Expedition.-Actors and historians:...
(1997) - Frank Lloyd WrightFrank Lloyd WrightFrank Lloyd Wright was an American architect, interior designer, writer and educator, who designed more than 1,000 structures and completed 500 works. Wright believed in designing structures which were in harmony with humanity and its environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture...
(1998) - Not For Ourselves Alone: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. AnthonyNot For Ourselves Alone: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. AnthonyNot for Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Susan B. Anthony is a 1999 documentary by Ken Burns produced for NPR and .WETA.Events covered in the documentary* The revolution* "I wish you were a boy" The status of women in the mid 1850's...
(1999) - Jazz (2001)
- Mark TwainMark Twain (documentary)Mark Twain is a documentary film on the life of Mark Twain produced by Ken Burns in 2001. Burns captures both the public and private persona of Mark Twain from his birth to his death. The film was narrated by Keith David and the voice of Mark Twain was provided by Kevin Conway....
(2001) - Horatio's Drive: America's First Road Trip (2003)
- Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack JohnsonUnforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack JohnsonUnforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson is a documentary by filmmaker Ken Burns based on the nonfiction book of the same name by Geoffrey C. Ward ....
(2005) - The WarThe War (documentary)The War is a 2007 American seven-part documentary television mini-series about World War II from the perspective of the United States that premiered on September 23, 2007...
(2007) - The National Parks: America's Best IdeaThe National Parks: America's Best IdeaThe National Parks: America's Best Idea is a 2009 documentary film for television, DVD and companion book by director/producer Ken Burns and producer/writer Dayton Duncan which features the United States National Park system and traces the system's history...
(2009) - ProhibitionProhibition (miniseries)Prohibition is a 2011 documentary film for television directed by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick with narration by Peter Coyote. It describes how alcohol and its effects were connected to many different cultural forces. Immigration, women's suffrage, the income tax, and the temperance movement led...
(2011)
Future releases
- The Dust Bowl (scheduled for 2012)
- The Central Park Five (2013)
- The RooseveltsRoosevelt familyIn heraldry, canting arms are a visual or pictorial play on a surname, and were and still are a popular practice. It would be common to find roses, then, in arms of many Roosevelt families, even unrelated ones...
(2014) - Jackie RobinsonJackie RobinsonJack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson was the first black Major League Baseball player of the modern era. Robinson broke the baseball color line when he debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947...
(2015) - VietnamVietnam WarThe Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
(2016) - Country MusicCountry musicCountry music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
(2018) - Ernest HemingwayErnest HemingwayErnest Miller Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His economic and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the...
(2019)
Under Burns's name only
- The WestThe West (documentary)The West, sometimes marketed as Ken Burns Presents: The West, is a documentary film about the American Old West. It was directed by Stephen Ives and the executive producer was Ken Burns. The film originally aired on PBS in September 1996....
(1996) (Executive producer; directed by Stephen Ives)
Short films
- William Segal (Biography) (1992)
- Vezelay (1996)
- In the Marketplace (2000)
Film roles
- Gettysburg (1993)—Hancock's staff officer
External links
- Florentine Films—Ken Burns's production company
- Ken Burns at MyNorthwest.com
- Ken Burns on PBSPublic Broadcasting ServiceThe Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
- Ken Burns bibliography
- Speaking Profile—Ken Burns's profile and lecture topics on the Random House Speakers Bureau
Interviews
- Ken Burns interviewed on Conversations from Penn State
- Blue Ridge Country—Ken Burns: The Interview with Blue Ridge County Magazine