Ken Burns

Burns, Ken (Kenneth Lauren Burns), 1953–, American documentary filmmaker, b. Brooklyn, N.Y., grad. Hampshire College (1975). Acting as producer, director, and cinematographer, Burns typically explores themes from American history, blending period photographs, works of art, film, and music with narration, remarks by historians and other scholars, contemporaneous written materials read by actors, and authentic sound effects. His first full-length film, The Brooklyn Bridge (1980), was, like his subsequent works, shown on public television. Burns won particular acclaim for his nine-part Civil War (1990), a re-creation and analysis of the conflict that won an Emmy and numerous other awards and was public broadcasting's highest-rated series. His other films include The Statue of Liberty (1985), Lewis and Clark (1997), various biographies, and the multipart Baseball (1994), Jazz (2001), The War (2007), about Americans at war and at home during World War II, and The National Parks: America's Best Idea (2009).

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