2009 Presenters
Ken Burns
Ken Burns has been making documentary films for more than 30 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. The late historian Stephen Ambrose said of Ken's films, "More Americans get their history from Ken Burns than any other source." A December 2002 poll conducted by RealScreen Magazine listed The Civil War as second only to Robert Flaherty's Nanook of the North as the "most influential documentary of all time" and named Ken Burns and Robert Flaherty as the "most influential documentary makers" of all time.
Ken's film, The War, is a seven-part series that tells the story of the Second World War through the personal accounts of nearly 40 men and women from four American towns.
Other documentaries include: Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson, Horatio's Drive: America's First Road Trip, Mark Twain, Jazz, Not For Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, Frank Lloyd Wright, Lewis and Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery, Thomas Jefferson, and The West.
Ken Burns was also the director, producer, co-writer, chief cinematographer, music director and executive producer of the public television series Baseball. Four and a half years in the making and 18½ hours in length, this film covers the history of baseball from the 1840s 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 the most watched series in PBS history, attracting more than 45 million viewers. David Bianculli of the Daily News said, "[Baseball] ... resonates like a Mozart symphony." Richard Zoglin of Time magazine 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 Association Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Sports and Outstanding Achievement in Movies, Mini-Series & Specials.
Ken Burns was also 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 American public television, prior to Baseball, and attracted an audience of 40 million during its premiere in September 1990. The New York Times called it a masterpiece and 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." The 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, a Producer of the Year Award from the Producer's Guild, a People's Choice Award, a Peabody Award, a duPont-Columbia Award, a D.W. Griffiths Award and the $50,000 Lincoln Prize, among dozens of others.
Ken was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1953. He graduated from Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, in 1975.
Appearing in: Documenting History
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