Ken Burns
‘The American Buffalo’ Review: Even Not-Peak Ken Burns Is Still Worth a Watch
Burns' new four-hour PBS doc studies the species' symbolism, its brutal near-extinction and the complicated and sometimes heroic struggle to bring the buffalo back.
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Ken Burns Distances Himself From Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas After Photo
Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns began trending on social media Friday for appearing in a photo with Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and billionaire David Koch. However, Burns said he does not have a relationship with Thomas, other than taking the photo. Koch has funded one of Burns’ documentaries. “Around ten years ago, Ken was stopped […]
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‘The U.S. and the Holocaust’: A Conversation With Co-Directors Ken Burns and Lynn Novick On Authoritarian Parallels
When directors Ken Burns, Lynn Novick and Sarah Botstein began work on The U.S. and the Holocaust around 2015, some of the events the three-part historical documentary series would depict hadn’t even happened yet. Initially, the series was inspired by questions viewers had for filmmakers including Burns after the release of The War (2007) and […]
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‘The U.S. and the Holocaust’ Review: Ken Burns’ New PBS Doc Is Devastating — and Distressingly Topical
Burns, Lynn Novick and Sarah Botstein's six-hour PBS documentary explores what the United States did and could have done in response to the Nazi atrocities of the Holocaust.
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Roger Angell, Revered Baseball Essayist, Dies at 101
Roger Angell, who turned a 1962 spring training assignment for The New Yorker into an elegant baseball writing career that landed him on the steps of Cooperstown’s Hall of Fame, died Friday. He was 101. Angell died at his home in Manhattan, New Yorker editor David Remnick announced. In 1956, Angell essentially replaced his mother, Katharine Sergeant Angell, […]
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Ken Burns on Benjamin Franklin, the State of Documentary and “Trying to Tell Really Complicated Stories About Us”
In many ways, Benjamin Franklin — an extraordinary polymath who ran his own newspaper and wrote a popular almanac, invented the lightning rod and bifocals, played a key role as a diplomat with France and signed the Declaration of Independence — was a one-of-a-kind American talent and a true product of his era. But also, […]
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PBS’ ‘Benjamin Franklin’: TV Review
Ken Burns' latest offering is a four-hour look at the wide-ranging life of the Founding Father, inventor, diplomat and writer.
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Ken Burns Celebrates Buck O’Neil Being Elected to Baseball Hall of Fame: “I’m Near Tears”
Ken Burns fought back tears as he celebrated Buck O’Neil being elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday. The legendary O’Neil, who died in 2006 at age 94, was a champion of Black ballplayers during his historic eight-decade career. Thus, he was featured heavily in Burns’ 1994 Baseball docuseries. “I’m near tears,” Burns […]
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Ken Burns Responds to Criticism Around Diversity in Documentary and PBS’ Reliance on the Director
Ken Burns, a PBS mainstay and award-winning documentarian, has responded to criticism around his relationship with the public broadcaster and diversity within the larger documentary community. Speaking to The New York Times Sway podcast host Kara Swisher for an episode titled, “Is Ken Burns Taking Up Too Much Space?” the creator of popular documentaries Baseball, […]
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