Ken Burns
Ken Burns (born 1953) is a highly 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.
A Hall for Heroes: The Inaugural Hall of Fame Induction of 1939
The Unmaking of a College
(Self)
Plimpton! Starring George Plimpton as Himself
(Himself)
Ken Burns: One Nation, Many Stories
OETA's On The Record: Ken Burns
Chuck Jones: Extremes and In-Betweens - A Life in Animation
(Self)
Ken Burns: Here & There
(Himself)
Here For A Good Time
(Self)
Very Ralph
(Self)
The Tony Danza Show
(Self)
The Daily Show
(Self)
Today
(Self)
This Week
Finding Your Roots
(Self)
60 Minutes
(Self)
The Colbert Report
(Self)
Late Night with Conan O'Brien
(Self - Guest)
Muhammad Ali
(Self - Panelist)
The Tim McCarver Show
Back on the Record with Bob Costas
(Self)
The Mindy Project
(Ken Burns)
MLB: Baseball's Seasons
(Filmmaker)
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
(Self)
The Simpsons
(Ken Burns (voice))
CNN Special Report
(Self)
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
(Self)
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
(Self)
In the Know
(Self)
The U.S. and the Holocaust
(Self)
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Baseball
(Self - Guest)
Craft in America
(Himself)
Firing Line with Margaret Hoover
East Lake Meadows: A Public Housing Story
(Producer)
Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson
(Director)
Seeing, Searching, Being: William Segal
(Director)
Brooklyn Bridge
(Director)
The Shakers: Hands to Work, Hearts to God
(Director)
The Congress
(Director)
The Statue of Liberty
(Director)
Baseball: The Tenth Inning
(Writer)
Baseball: The Tenth Inning
(Director)
Horatio's Drive: America's First Road Trip
(Director)
The Central Park Five
(Screenplay)
The Central Park Five
(Director)
Huey Long
(Director)
Mark Twain
(Producer)
Mark Twain
(Director)
Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio
(Director)
Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio
(Producer)
The Statue of Liberty
(Cinematography)
The Address
(Director)
Thomas Hart Benton
(Director)
Brooklyn Bridge
(Director of Photography)
The Statue of Liberty
(Producer)
Mark Twain
(Director of Photography)
Defying the Nazis: The Sharps' War
(Executive Producer)
Defying the Nazis: The Sharps' War
(Director)
Lindbergh
(Producer)
Hiding in Plain Sight: Youth Mental Illness
(Executive Producer)
The Shakers: Hands to Work, Hearts to God
(Producer)
Huey Long
(Producer)
Thomas Hart Benton
(Producer)
Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio
(Cinematography)
Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio
(Music Director)
Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio
(Executive Producer)
Yosemite — A Gathering of Spirit
(Director)
The Mayo Clinic
(Co-Director)
Interstellar
(Thanks)
The Mayo Clinic
(Director)
East Lake Meadows: A Public Housing Story
(Executive Producer)
Walden
(Executive Producer)
Leonardo da Vinci
(Director)
Leonardo da Vinci
(Director)
The Civil War
(Director)
The Civil War
(Writer)
Baseball
(Director)
Jazz
(Director)
Jazz
(Producer)
Baseball
(Writer)
Baseball
(Producer)
The National Parks: America's Best Idea
(Producer)
The War
(Executive Producer)
Lewis & Clark - The Journey of the Corps of Discovery
(Director)
The Vietnam War
(Producer)
The West
(Executive Producer)
Thomas Jefferson
(Director)
The Dust Bowl
(Director)
The Dust Bowl
(Producer)
Prohibition
(Executive Producer)
Jackie Robinson
(Director)
Lewis & Clark - The Journey of the Corps of Discovery
(Producer)
Not for Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Susan B. Anthony
(Producer)
The National Parks: America's Best Idea
(Director)
Not for Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Susan B. Anthony
(Director)
Frank Lloyd Wright
(Director)
The Roosevelts: An Intimate History
(Director)
The Roosevelts: An Intimate History
(Writer)
The War
(Director)
The Civil War
(Executive Producer)
Country Music
(Director)
Country Music
(Executive Producer)
The Vietnam War
(Director)
The Vietnam War
(Executive Producer)
Prohibition
(Producer)
Prohibition
(Director)
Hemingway
(Director)
The Gene: An Intimate History
(Producer)
Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies
(Producer)
Hemingway
(Producer)
Muhammad Ali
(Executive Producer)
Muhammad Ali
(Director)
Muhammad Ali
(Writer)
The Civil War
(Director of Photography)
Baseball: The Tenth Inning
(Director)
Baseball: The Tenth Inning
(Writer)
Mark Twain
(Director)
Frank Lloyd Wright
(Producer)
The U.S. and the Holocaust
(Producer)
The U.S. and the Holocaust
(Director)
Hiding in Plain Sight: Youth Mental Illness
(Executive Producer)
Benjamin Franklin
(Director)
De la poussière et des hommes
(Director)
Baseball
(Cinematography)
Baseball
(Executive Producer)
Baseball
(Music Director)
Baseball: The Tenth Inning
(Producer)
Baseball: The Tenth Inning
(Cinematography)
The American Buffalo
(Director)
Thomas Jefferson
(Creator)
The American Buffalo
(Producer)
The American Buffalo
(Executive Producer)
College Behind Bars
(Executive Producer)
The American Revolution
(Director)
Leonardo da Vinci
(Director)
Leonardo da Vinci
(Executive Producer)
Leonardo da Vinci
(Creator)
Prohibition
(Creator)
The U.S. and the Holocaust
(Creator)
Baseball: The Tenth Inning
(Creator)
Die USA und der Holocaust (Arte)
(Creator)
Leonardo da Vinci
(Creator)