Ken Burns TOPICS: Arts / Music / Drama Journalism Media / Broadcast / Print FEE CATEGORY:* 50.0k to 75.0k TRAVELS FROM: New Hampshire Profile Request This Speaker

Ken Burns: Profile

Award-Winning Documentary Filmmaker

Ken Burns has been making documentary films for more than twenty years. Since the Academy Award nominated Brooklyn Bridge in 1981, he has gone on to direct and produce some of the most acclaimed historical documentaries ever made. Stephen Ambrose, the historian, has said of Ken's films, "More Americans get their history from Ken Burns than any other source."

Ken Burns was the director, producer, co-writer, chief cinematographer, music director and executive producer of the PBS series Baseball. Four and a half years in the making and eighteen-hours in length, this film covered the history of baseball from the 1840's to the present. Through the extensive use of archival photographs and newsreel footage, baseball as a mirror of our larger society was brought to the screen over nine nights during its premiere in September 1994. It became one of the most watched series in PBS history, attracting more than 45 million viewers.

David Bianculli of the New York Daily News said, "[Baseball]...resonates like a Mozart symphony." Richard Zoglin of Time wrote, "Baseball is rich in drama, irresistible as nostalgia, and…an instructive window into our national psychology." Baseball received numerous awards, including an Emmy, the CINE Golden Eagle Award, the Clarion Award, and the Television Critics Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Sports and Special Programming.

Ken Burns was the director, producer, co-writer, chief cinematographer, music director and executive producer of the landmark television series The Civil War. This film was the highest rated series in the history of PBS and attracted an audience of 40 million during its premiere in September 1990.

The New York Times said that Ken Burns "takes his place as the most accomplished documentary filmmaker of his generation." Tom Shales of The Washington Post said, "This is not just good television, nor even just great television. This is heroic television." Columnist George Will said, "If better use has ever been made of television, I have not seen it and do not expect to see better until Ken Burns turns his prodigious talents to his next project."

The series has been honored with more than 40 major film and television awards, including two Emmy Awards, two Grammy Awards, Producer of the Year Award from the Producer's Guild, People's Choice Award, Peabody Award, duPont-Columbia Award, D.W. Griffiths Award, and the $50,000 Lincoln Prize, among dozens of others.

In January 2001, JAZZ, the third in Ken's trilogy of epic documentaries, which began with The Civil War and continued with Baseball, was broadcast on PBS. Co-produced with Lynn Novick, this 19-hour, ten-part film explored in detail the culture, politics and dreams that gave birth to jazz music, and follows this most American of art forms from its origins in blues and ragtime through swing, bebop and fusion.

Jack Newfield of the New York Post said: "JAZZ is the best American documentary film I have ever seen. Period." NBC's Tom Brokaw wrote: "JAZZ is a masterpiece of American television." John Carmen of The San Francisco Chronicle wrote: "JAZZ informs, astonishes, and entertains. It invites joy, tears, toe-tapping, pride, and shame and maybe an occasional goose bump." JAZZ premiered on PBS in January of 2001.

Critics and viewers agree that Ken Burns' work will remain forever in the archives of American history and in documentary filmmaking as masterpieces. As a speaker, Burns translates his immense storytelling talents from film to a live audience.

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