Ken Burns

Ken Burns

Nacimiento : 1953-07-29, Brooklyn, New York, USA

Historia

Celebrated American documentarian who gradually amassed a considerable reputation and a devoted audience with a series of reassuringly traditional meditations on Americana. Burns' works are treasure troves of archival materials; he skillfully utilizes period music and footage, photographs, periodicals and ordinary people's correspondence, the latter often movingly read by seasoned professional actors in a deliberate attempt to get away from a "Great Man" approach to history. Like most non-fiction filmmakers, Burns wears many hats on his projects, often serving as writer, cinematographer, editor and music director in addition to producing and directing. He achieved his apotheosis with The Civil War (1990), a phenomenally popular 11-hour documentary that won two Emmys and broke all previous ratings records for public TV. The series' companion coffee table book--priced at a hefty $50--sold more than 700,000 copies. The audio version, narrated by Burns, was also a major best-seller. In the final accounting, "The Civil War" became the first documentary to gross over $100 million. Not surprisingly, it has become perennial fund-raising programming for public TV stations around the country. Burns arrived upon the scene with the Oscar-nominated Brooklyn Bridge (1981), a nostalgic chronicle of the construction of the fabled edifice. The film was more widely seen when rebroadcast on PBS the following year. Though Burns has made other nonfiction films for theatrical release, notably an acclaimed and ambiguous portrait of Depression-era Louisiana governor Huey Long (1985), PBS would prove to be his true home. He cast a probing eye on such American subjects as The Statue of Liberty (1985), The Congress (1988) (PBS), painter Thomas Hart Benton (1988) (PBS) and early radio with Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio (1991) (PBS). Burns returned to long-form documentary with his most ambitious project to date, an 18-hour history of Baseball (1994), which aired on PBS in the fall of 1994. He approached the national pastime as a template for understanding changes in modern American society. Ironically, this was the only baseball on the air at the time, as the players and owners were embroiled in a bitter strike.

Perfil

Ken Burns

Películas

The Unmaking of a College
Self
In THE UNMAKING OF A COLLEGE, students at Hampshire College confront a new president's underhanded attempt to shut down their school and discover that a powerful institution is bullying an inexperienced administration into giving up the independence of one of the most experimenting colleges in the United States. A raucous ode to democracy in action, this film evokes the courage required to stand up to power at a time when many liberal arts colleges are failing.
Ken Burns: Here & There
Himself
Explore the filmmaker’s life and career in interviews with colleagues, friends and Burns himself. The importance of place emerges as a theme as he reflects on his own geographic touchstones, from the Brooklyn Bridge to small-town New Hampshire.
Here For A Good Time
Self
Here For A Good Time tells the story of Hampshire College, a tiny liberal arts school in Western Mass with a reputation for really knowing how to party.
East Lake Meadows: A Public Housing Story
Producer
The history of the East Lake Meadows public housing project in Atlanta and the people who lived there from 1970 to its demolition in 2000, with special emphasis on the activism of Eva Davis asserting the rights of the tenants.
East Lake Meadows: A Public Housing Story
Executive Producer
The history of the East Lake Meadows public housing project in Atlanta and the people who lived there from 1970 to its demolition in 2000, with special emphasis on the activism of Eva Davis asserting the rights of the tenants.
Very Ralph: La Vida Y Obra De Ralph Lauren
Himself
The first documentary portrait of fashion icon Ralph Lauren, reveals the man behind the icon and the creation of one of the most successful brands in fashion history.
The Mayo Clinic
Director
The Mayo Clinic tells the story of a unique medical institution that has been called a "Medical Mecca," the "Supreme Court of Medicine," and the "place for hope where there is no hope." The Mayo Clinic began in 1883 as an unlikely partnership between the Sisters of Saint Francis and a country doctor named William Worrall Mayo after a devastating tornado in rural Minnesota. Since then, it has grown into an organization that treats more than a million patients a year from all 50 states and 150 countries. Dr. Mayo had a simple philosophy he imparted to his sons Will and Charlie: "the needs of the patient come first." They wouldn't treat diseases...they would treat people. In a world where healthcare delivery is typically fragmented among individual specialties, the Mayo Clinic practices a multi-specialty, team-based approach that has, from its beginnings, created a culture that thrives on collaboration.
The Mayo Clinic
Co-Director
The Mayo Clinic tells the story of a unique medical institution that has been called a "Medical Mecca," the "Supreme Court of Medicine," and the "place for hope where there is no hope." The Mayo Clinic began in 1883 as an unlikely partnership between the Sisters of Saint Francis and a country doctor named William Worrall Mayo after a devastating tornado in rural Minnesota. Since then, it has grown into an organization that treats more than a million patients a year from all 50 states and 150 countries. Dr. Mayo had a simple philosophy he imparted to his sons Will and Charlie: "the needs of the patient come first." They wouldn't treat diseases...they would treat people. In a world where healthcare delivery is typically fragmented among individual specialties, the Mayo Clinic practices a multi-specialty, team-based approach that has, from its beginnings, created a culture that thrives on collaboration.
Defying the Nazis: The Sharps' War
Executive Producer
Join an American couple’s courageous mission in 1939 to help refugees escape Nazi-occupied Europe. Over the course of two years, the pair will risk their lives so that hundreds can live in freedom.
Defying the Nazis: The Sharps' War
Director
Join an American couple’s courageous mission in 1939 to help refugees escape Nazi-occupied Europe. Over the course of two years, the pair will risk their lives so that hundreds can live in freedom.
Interstellar
Thanks
Narra las aventuras de un grupo de exploradores que hacen uso de un agujero de gusano recientemente descubierto para superar las limitaciones de los viajes espaciales tripulados y vencer las inmensas distancias que tiene un viaje interestelar.
OETA's On The Record: Ken Burns
Award-winning filmmaker Ken Burns sits down with OETA's Dick Pryor to discuss his latest documentary, "The Dust Bowl,' upcoming projects, and the thrill of filming America's history.
The Address
Director
The Gettysburg Address is the subject of a new documentary by Ken Burns. The documentary tells the story of students at the Greenwood School whose study of the Gettysburg Address brings new understanding to the speech.
Yosemite — A Gathering of Spirit
Director
Burns’ Yosemite: A Gathering of Spirit, a documentary film produced to honor the 150th anniversary of the landmark act signed by Abraham Lincoln. This act preserved Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias.
Plimpton! Starring George Plimpton as Himself
Himself
Plimpton! tells the story of writer, editor, amateur sportsman and friend to many, George Plimpton. Using Plimpton’s own narration – along with thoughts and stories from friends, family and contemporaries – the film is a joyful celebration of a life lived fully, richly, strangely, and, at times, a life that is hard to believe was actually lived by just one man.
Los cinco de Central Park
Screenplay
Central Park, 20 de abril de 1989, una joven corredora se debate entre la vida y la muerte. Cinco adolescentes hispanos y negros son detenidos. Tras un violento interrogatorio, confiesan haber cometido la violación de esta joven blanca y son condenados a penas que oscilan entre los 6 y los 13 años de cárcel. La prensa los bautiza como los Central Park Five. Sin embargo, el caso está repleto de sombras. Ningún testigo ocular confirma la tesis de la policía y las pruebas de ADN exculpan a los cinco adolescentes. Por el contrario, la prensa no actúa a favor de los Central Park Five y presenta al grupo como delincuentes. Hasta el día en que Matías Reyes, violador reincidente, confiesa el crimen. La condena es anulada y los adolescentes, convertidos en hombres, son liberados.
Los cinco de Central Park
Director
Central Park, 20 de abril de 1989, una joven corredora se debate entre la vida y la muerte. Cinco adolescentes hispanos y negros son detenidos. Tras un violento interrogatorio, confiesan haber cometido la violación de esta joven blanca y son condenados a penas que oscilan entre los 6 y los 13 años de cárcel. La prensa los bautiza como los Central Park Five. Sin embargo, el caso está repleto de sombras. Ningún testigo ocular confirma la tesis de la policía y las pruebas de ADN exculpan a los cinco adolescentes. Por el contrario, la prensa no actúa a favor de los Central Park Five y presenta al grupo como delincuentes. Hasta el día en que Matías Reyes, violador reincidente, confiesa el crimen. La condena es anulada y los adolescentes, convertidos en hombres, son liberados.
Baseball: The Tenth Inning
Writer
In an age of globalization and deregulation, a cataclysmic strike over money and power brings baseball to the brink; dazzlingly talented Latin players transform the sport; Cal Ripken becomes baseball's new Iron Man; and Ken Griffey, Jr. and Barry Bonds are simply dazzling. The Braves dominate the National League while the Yankees build a new dynasty. As home run totals soar, sluggers Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa smash one of the game's most hallowed records. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, players on every team must make life altering decisions about how far they are willing to go to succeed.
Baseball: The Tenth Inning
Director
In an age of globalization and deregulation, a cataclysmic strike over money and power brings baseball to the brink; dazzlingly talented Latin players transform the sport; Cal Ripken becomes baseball's new Iron Man; and Ken Griffey, Jr. and Barry Bonds are simply dazzling. The Braves dominate the National League while the Yankees build a new dynasty. As home run totals soar, sluggers Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa smash one of the game's most hallowed records. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, players on every team must make life altering decisions about how far they are willing to go to succeed.
A Hall for Heroes: The Inaugural Hall of Fame Induction of 1939
A history of the origin of National Baseball Hall of Fame and its first induction ceremony in 1939.
Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson
Director
La historia de Jack Johnson, el primer afroamericano campeón de los pesos pesados.
Horatio's Drive: America's First Road Trip
Director
In the spring of 1903, on a whim and a fifty-dollar bet, Dr. Horatio Nelson Jackson set off from San Francisco in a 20-horsepower Winton touring car hoping to become the first person to cross the United States in the new-fangled "horseless carriage." Most people doubted that the automobile had much of a future. Jackson's trip would prove them wrong.
Mark Twain
Director of Photography
Largely considered to be the greatest American author, Mark Twain is celebrated in this exhaustive documentary by filmmaker Ken Burns.
Mark Twain
Producer
Largely considered to be the greatest American author, Mark Twain is celebrated in this exhaustive documentary by filmmaker Ken Burns.
Mark Twain
Director
Largely considered to be the greatest American author, Mark Twain is celebrated in this exhaustive documentary by filmmaker Ken Burns.
Chuck Jones: A Life in Animation
Himself
Documental que recoge la vida y obra del legendario animador Chuck Jones, creador de algunos de los más famosos Looney Tunes y ganador de varios Oscar por su labor con dichos personajes.
Seeing, Searching, Being: William Segal
Director
Acclaimed filmmaker Ken Burns directs this engrossing documentary trilogy about the life and work of writer, philosopher, painter and publisher William Segal, a lifelong student of Eastern thought and Western spiritual traditions. The first film in the series shadows Segal in his home art studio; the second follows him to the Vézelay basilica in France; the third accompanies him on the streets of Paris as he prepares for a gallery exhibition.
Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio
Producer
For 50 years radio dominated the airwaves and the American consciousness as the first “mass medium.” In Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio, Ken Burns examines the lives of three extraordinary men who shared the primary responsibility for this invention and its early success, and whose genius, friendship, rivalry and enmity interacted in tragic ways. This is the story of Lee de Forest, a clergyman’s flamboyant son, who invented the audion tube; Edwin Howard Armstrong, a brilliant, withdrawn inventor who pioneered FM technology; and David Sarnoff, a hard-driving Russian immigrant who created the most powerful communications company on earth.
Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio
Director
For 50 years radio dominated the airwaves and the American consciousness as the first “mass medium.” In Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio, Ken Burns examines the lives of three extraordinary men who shared the primary responsibility for this invention and its early success, and whose genius, friendship, rivalry and enmity interacted in tragic ways. This is the story of Lee de Forest, a clergyman’s flamboyant son, who invented the audion tube; Edwin Howard Armstrong, a brilliant, withdrawn inventor who pioneered FM technology; and David Sarnoff, a hard-driving Russian immigrant who created the most powerful communications company on earth.
Lindbergh
Producer
Charles Lindbergh lived a life of absolutes, never doubting his own abilities or the altitude of his own moral high ground. His extraordinary character brought him unparalleled accomplishment but also public humiliation and lonely isolation, as his faith in genetic determinism could barely conceal his narrow, naive, and racist social and political views.
Thomas Hart Benton
Producer
Thomas Hart Benton's paintings were energetic and uncompromising. Today his works are in museums, but Benton hung them in saloons for ordinary people to appreciate.
Thomas Hart Benton
Director
Thomas Hart Benton's paintings were energetic and uncompromising. Today his works are in museums, but Benton hung them in saloons for ordinary people to appreciate.
The Congress
Director
For 200 years, the United States Congress has been one of the country's most important and least understood institutions. In this elegant, thoughtful and often touching portrait, Ken Burns explores the history and promise of this unique American institution. Using historical photographs and newsreels, evocative live footage and interviews with David Broder, Alistair Cooke, Cokie Roberts, Charles McDowell and others, the award-winning film chronicles the personalities, events and issues that have animated the first 200 years of Congress and, in turn, our country.
The Statue of Liberty
Producer
For more than 100 years, the Statue of Liberty has been a symbol of hope and refuge for generations of immigrants. In this lyrical, compelling and provocative portrait of the statue, Ken Burns explores both the history of America’s premier symbol and the meaning of liberty itself. Featuring rare archival photographs, paintings and drawings, readings from actual diaries, letters and newspapers of the day, the fascinating story of this universally admired monument is told. In interviews with Americans from all walks of life, including former New York governor Mario Cuomo, the late congresswoman Barbara Jordan and the late writers James Baldwin and Jerzy Kosinski, The Statue of Liberty examines the nature of liberty and the significance of the statue to American life. Nominated for both the Academy Award ® and the Emmy Award ®, The Statue of Liberty received the prestigious CINE Golden Eagle, the Christopher Award and the Blue Ribbon at the American Film Festival.
The Statue of Liberty
Director
For more than 100 years, the Statue of Liberty has been a symbol of hope and refuge for generations of immigrants. In this lyrical, compelling and provocative portrait of the statue, Ken Burns explores both the history of America’s premier symbol and the meaning of liberty itself. Featuring rare archival photographs, paintings and drawings, readings from actual diaries, letters and newspapers of the day, the fascinating story of this universally admired monument is told. In interviews with Americans from all walks of life, including former New York governor Mario Cuomo, the late congresswoman Barbara Jordan and the late writers James Baldwin and Jerzy Kosinski, The Statue of Liberty examines the nature of liberty and the significance of the statue to American life. Nominated for both the Academy Award ® and the Emmy Award ®, The Statue of Liberty received the prestigious CINE Golden Eagle, the Christopher Award and the Blue Ribbon at the American Film Festival.
Huey Long
Producer
Ken Burns' portrait of Louisiana governor and U.S. senator Huey Long.
Huey Long
Director
Ken Burns' portrait of Louisiana governor and U.S. senator Huey Long.
The Shakers: Hands to Work, Hearts to God
Producer
They called themselves the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, but because of their ecstatic dancing, the world called them Shakers. Ken Burns creates a moving portrait of this particularly American movement, and in the process, offers us a new and unusually moving way to understand the Shakers.
The Shakers: Hands to Work, Hearts to God
Director
They called themselves the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, but because of their ecstatic dancing, the world called them Shakers. Ken Burns creates a moving portrait of this particularly American movement, and in the process, offers us a new and unusually moving way to understand the Shakers.
Brooklyn Bridge
Director of Photography
Today it's a symbol of strength and vitality. 135 years ago, it was a source of controversy. This documentary examines the great problems and ingenious solutions that marked the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge. From conception to construction, it traces the bridge's transformation from a spectacular feat of heroic engineering to an honored symbol in American culture.
Brooklyn Bridge
Director
Today it's a symbol of strength and vitality. 135 years ago, it was a source of controversy. This documentary examines the great problems and ingenious solutions that marked the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge. From conception to construction, it traces the bridge's transformation from a spectacular feat of heroic engineering to an honored symbol in American culture.