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Ken Burns: Defining a generation of documentaries By Kenneth Andeel TV Media Sometimes a filmmaker exerts such an influence on their industry that their name becomes synonymous with a genre or style. On the documentary scene, where films get barely a fraction of the advertising and promotion that scripted films do, such name recognition can be the difference between success and failure. There are a few characters who have achieved this level of recognition, but none are as synonymous with the genre as Ken Burns is in the eyes of American audiences. Burns was born in Brooklyn, New York City, to two academically inclined parents. His mother, Lyla, was a biotechnician, and his father, Robert, was a grad student pursuing cultural anthropology. His parents’ careers in academia made for a nomadic lifestyle, and a young Burns spent his adolescence in several different locations in America and abroad. When he was three, his mother was diagnosed with cancer, and her illness and looming mortality was a significant presence in his life until her death when he was 11 years old. This traumatic event helped define his career. Later in life, Burns’ father-in-law stated that his “whole [body of] work was an attempt to make people long gone come back alive.” At age 17, Burns was given an 8 mm camera as a birthday gift and began to explore history through the lens of a video camera. He attended Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, an educational institution known for its experimental curriculum and rejection of grades or GPA as a metric for determining student success. Burns received a degree in film studies and design, and upon graduation, he helped co-found the company Florentine Films with several friends. It was there that he began work on his first professional picture, “Brooklyn Bridge” (1981), a documentary about the construction of the important

New York landmark. The success of the film launched Burns’ career, and the rest of the 1980s saw him produce several more documentaries and biographies. In 1990, one of the most preeminent works of his career was released: the nine-part miniseries “The Civil War” premiered on PBS in September 1990, breaking viewership records and amassing a trove of awards. The success of “The Civil War” gave Burns the ability to pursue whatever subjects he desired, and throughout the 1990s and 2000s, Burns released documentaries on topics that included the story of American baseball and the struggle of black players, the misguided attempt at prohibition by the United States in the 1920s, and studies of World War II and the Vietnam War. This week, Burns launches another series on PBS: “Country Music” premieres Sunday, Sept. 15, and like most of the documentarian’s projects, the title explains itself. In this series, Burns examines the genesis of American country music and its influence the national character.

FACTS:

Ken Burns

- Born July 29, 1953, in Brooklyn, New York City (age 66) - His debut film, “Brooklyn Bridge,” was nominated for an Academy Award - His technique of zooming in or panning across the subjects of a still image has been nicknamed the “Ken Burns Effect,” and is included in some Apple video-editing software - In partnership with PBS, his production company, Florentine Films, has a schedule of documentary topics that extends to the year 2030 - Collaborated with his daughter, author Sarah Burns, on the documentary “The Central Park Five” (2012) - Is a collector of antique American quilts

QUOTES:

“It’s all one story. It always has been. Though the subjects of my documentaries have differed, their themes have remained interwoven and eternally related to one another. The lines of connection have always been there. It’s up to you to find them.” “I think history has made me an optimist, despite the fact that it shows you that human nature doesn’t change — that the same venality is present, the same abstraction of war is present, the same greed is present, but so is also the same generosity and the same love.”

SATURDAY DAYTIME SEPTEMBER 14, 2019 6:30

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