Ken Burns

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Ken Burns

Born Kenneth Lauren Burns
July 29, 1953 (1953-07-29) (age 54)
Brooklyn, New York, New York, U.S.
Spouse(s) Julie Deborah Brown (2003-present)
Amy Stechler Burns (1982-1993)
For the jazz/country musician, see Kenneth C. Burns

Kenneth Lauren Burns (born July 29, 1953) is an American director and producer of documentary films known for his style of making use of original prints and photographs. Among his most notable productions are The Civil War (1990), Baseball (1994), Jazz (2001) and The War (2007).

Burns's documentaries have been nominated for two Academy Awards (Brooklyn Bridge in 1982 and The Statue of Liberty in 1986) and six of his documentaries have been nominated for one or more Emmy Awards. He won three Emmy Awards for The Civil War, for Baseball and for Unforgivable Blackness.

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[edit] Biography

Burns was born in Brooklyn, New York City, and went on to graduate from Pioneer High School in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts in 1975, and went on to be one of the co-founders of Florentine Films.[1] He received a Doctor of Humane Letters degree (an honorary degree from Bates College, L.H.D. in 2002), and currently resides in Walpole, New Hampshire with his wife Julie and three daughters. He endorses Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential race.[2]

Burns' brother, Ric Burns, is also a noted documentary filmmaker.

Burns delivered the commencement address for the class of 2006 at Georgetown University and also for Lehigh University's class of 2006.[3] He was also the keynote speaker for the opening of National History Day at the University of Maryland in 2007.

[edit] Career

[edit] Ken Burns Effect

Main article: Ken Burns Effect

In common with the makers of documentaries on subjects where principally still material is available, 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 the narrator is discussing.

This effect, present in many professional and home software applications was affectionately named "The Ken Burns Effect" in Apple Inc.'s iPhoto and iMovie software.It also figures in the 6th generation Ipods interface with this effect on the coverart of the main menu.

[edit] The Civil War

Main article: The Civil War (documentary)

Of Burns's many film series The Civil War is generally considered to be his masterpiece. Narrated by Pulitzer Prize winning author David McCullough, Burns filled in many other roles, serving as director, producer, co-writer, chief cinematographer, music director and executive producer of The Civil War. 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 Producers Guild of America, People's Choice Award, Peabody Award, duPont-Columbia Award, D.W. Griffith Award, and the US$50,000 Lincoln Prize, among dozens of others. The nine episodes explore the Civil War through personal stories and photos that create a very different kind of experience from watching nearly any other modern movie today. During the creation of the movie Burns filmed thousands of archived photographs. This resulted in the coining of the aforementioned term the “Ken Burns Effect”. The Civil War has been viewed by more than 40 million people.

[edit] Controversy

The Ken Burns World War II PBS documentary entitled The War was originally scheduled to premiere on September 16, 2007[4] but later shifted to September 23, 2007. However, it has come under criticism because the version which first became available for preview made no mention of the contributions of Hispanics in the war, despite the fact that it contains focused coverage of other minority groups (As many as half a million Hispanics fought in World War II.)[5][6] The original air date became part of the debate, as September 16 is Mexican Independence Day and starts the observance in the United States of Hispanic Heritage Month. This in turn has attracted renewed attention to Burns's omissions of Hispanic contributions in his earlier documentaries on baseball and jazz. Under pressure from advocacy groups, and after initially insisting that no changes would be made, PBS and Burns agreed to add supplementary content to the 14-hour documentary and include a Latino filmmaker, Hector Galán, to accomplish this.[7] Ken Burns has also come under some criticism for not mentioning how West Virginia broke away from Virginia in the Civil War.

As of mid-July, 2007, estimates put out by Burns suggested that additional footage showing interviews with two Hispanics and one Native American would be added to the series, for a total of 28 minutes additional footage to the nearly 15 hours the program was originally planned to cover.[8]

[edit] Ken Burns in popular culture

  • The 2004 mockumentary short The Old Negro Space Program parodies Burns's film making (even opening its credits by stating "A film not by Ken Burns"), relying heavily upon so-called "Ken Burns Effect" shots, Burns-style plaintive piano bridges, and "letters home" read by a narrator over still pictures.
  • An episode of the 1990s HBO sketch comedy series "Mr. Show" featured a video mockumentary entitled "The Civil War: The Reenactments" in an obvious parody of Burns' "Civil War."
  • In an episode of The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius where Jimmy and his friends travel to Egypt, his classmates are watching a "97 hour-long documentary about Egypt by Ken Burns."
  • In The Simpsons episode "Pray Anything", Homer inadvertently watches a documentary by, about, and named for Ken Burns due to his inability to find his television remote.

[edit] Filmography

Under Burns' name

  • The West (1996) (Executive Producer, Directed by Steven Ives)

Short Films

  • William Segal (1992)
  • Vezelay (1997)
  • In the Marketplace (2000)

[edit] References

  1. ^ Hal Erickson. "Ken Burns biography", All Movie Guide. Retrieved on 2007-06-09. 
  2. ^ The Swamp: Once neutral, filmmaker Ken Burns picks Obama
  3. ^ Ken Burns (20 May 2006). 2006 Commencement Address. Georgetown University. Retrieved on 2007-06-09.
  4. ^ Carlos Guerra. "PBS' WW II film no longer on Diez y Seis, but still no Latinos," San Antonio Express-News, February 23, 2007.
  5. ^ Guerra, Carlos. "Commentary: Honor Latinos' sacrifice even if 'The War' doesn't", San Antonio News Express, April 25, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-06-09. 
  6. ^ Dick Kreck. "Latinos left out of "The War"", Denver Post, March 4, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-06-09. 
  7. ^ The Story Must Be Told and The History Preserved. Defend the Honor. Retrieved on 2007-06-09.
  8. ^ Associated Press. "Ken Burns adds half-hour to 'The War' series to include Hispanic, American Indian veterans," July 11, 2007.

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
v • d • e
Films of Ken Burns
1980s
Brooklyn Bridge (1981) · Remembering Chicago and World War II (1982) · The Shakers: Hands to Work, Hearts to God (1984) · The Statue of Liberty (1985) · Huey Long (1985) · Congress (1988) · Thomas Hart Benton (1988)
1990s
The Civil War (1990) · Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio (1991) · Baseball (1994) · The West (1996) · Thomas Jefferson (1997) · Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery (1997) · Frank Lloyd Wright (1998) · Not For Ourselves Alone (1999)
2000s
See also: