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.
Fotos
Filmes (38)
Henry David Thoreau
2026 · Producer
Ken Burns: One Nation, Many Stories
2024
Homecoming
2023 · Executive Producer
Spirit of Golf
2023 · Self
'Tis the Season: The Holidays on Screen
2022 · Self - Commentator
The Unmaking of a College
2022 · Self
Ken Burns: Here & There
2020 · Himself
Here For A Good Time
2020 · Self
East Lake Meadows: A Public Housing Story
2020 · Producer, Executive Producer
Muito Ralph: Vida e Obra de Ralph Lauren
2019 · Self
Henry Louis Gates Jr.: Uncovering America
2019 · Self - Director and Producer
The Mayo Clinic
2018 · Director, Writer, Executive Producer
Walden
2017 · Executive Producer
Defying the Nazis: The Sharps' War
2016 · Executive Producer, Director
Interestelar
2014 · Thanks
OETA's On the Record: Ken Burns
2014 · Self
The Address
2014 · Director
Yosemite — A Gathering of Spirit
2013 · Narrator (Voice), Director, Executive Producer, Cinematography
After the Central Park Five
2013 · Director, Writer
Plimpton! Starring George Plimpton as Himself
2012 · Self
The Central Park Five
2012 · Director, Writer, Producer
Baseball: The Tenth Inning
2010 · Writer, Director
Seeing, Searching, Being: William Segal
2010 · Director
A Hall for Heroes: The Inaugural Hall of Fame Induction of 1939
2010
Wordplay
2006 · Self
Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson
2004 · Director
Horatio's Drive: America's First Road Trip
2003 · Director
Mark Twain
2002 · Producer, Director, Director of Photography
Chuck Jones: Extremes and In-Betweens - A Life in Animation
2000 · Self
Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio
1991 · Director, Producer, Music Director, Executive Producer, Director of Photography
Lindbergh
1990 · Producer
Thomas Hart Benton
1989 · Director, Producer
The Congress
1989 · Director
The Statue of Liberty
1985 · Director, Cinematography, Producer
Huey Long
1985 · Director, Producer
The Shakers: Hands to Work, Hearts to God
1984 · Director, Producer, Cinematography
Brooklyn Bridge
1981 · Director, Director of Photography, Cinematography
The Gettysburg Book: A Father, Son & The Killer Angels
· Self
Séries (59)
Crime and Punishment in America
2026 · Executive Producer
Henry David Thoreau
2026 · Director, Writer, Producer, Creator
The American Revolution
2025 · Producer, Director, Creator
Leonardo da Vinci
2024 · Director, Executive Producer, Creator
In the Know
2024 · Self
The American Buffalo
2023 · Director, Producer, Executive Producer
The U.S. and the Holocaust
2022 · Producer, Director, Creator
Hiding in Plain Sight: Youth Mental Illness
2022 · Executive Producer
Benjamin Franklin
2022 · Director, Producer
O Problema com Jon Stewart
2021 · Self
Muhammad Ali
2021 · Director, Writer, Executive Producer
Back on the Record with Bob Costas
2021 · Self
De la poussière et des hommes
2021 · Director
Hemingway
2021 · Director, Producer
The Gene: An Intimate History
2020 · Producer
Educação Prisional: Uma Chance de Futuro
2019 · Executive Producer
Country Music
2019 · Executive Producer, Director
Firing Line with Margaret Hoover
2018 · Self
A Guerra do Vietnã: A Batalha que a Mídia Venceu
2017 · Producer, Executive Producer, Director
Jackie Robinson
2016 · Director
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
2015 · Self - Guest, Self
Difficult People
2015 · Ken Burns
Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies
2015 · Producer
The Roosevelts: An Intimate History
2014 · Director, Writer, Creator
The Tonight Show com Jimmy Fallon
2014 · Self - Guest
The Dust Bowl
2012 · Director, Producer
The Mindy Project
2012 · Ken Burns
Finding Your Roots
2012 · Self
Prohibition
2011 · Executive Producer, Producer, Director, Creator
Baseball: The Tenth Inning
2010 · Director, Writer, Producer, Director of Photography, Executive Producer, Creator
The Joe Rogan Experience
2009 · Self
The National Parks: America's Best Idea
2009 · Producer, Director
MLB: Baseball's Seasons
2009 · Self - Filmmaker
The War
2007 · Executive Producer, Director
Craft in America
2007 · Himself
The Colbert Report
2005 · Self, Self (uncredited)
The Tim McCarver Show
2005
Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson
2005 · Director, Producer
The Tony Danza Show
2004 · Self
Mark Twain
2002 · Director
Jazz
2001 · Producer, Director
Not for Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Susan B. Anthony
1999 · Producer, Director
Frank Lloyd Wright
1998 · Director, Producer
Lewis & Clark - The Journey of the Corps of Discovery
1997 · Director, Producer
The View
1997 · Self
Thomas Jefferson
1997 · Director, Creator
The West
1996 · Executive Producer
The Daily Show com Trevor Noah
1996 · Self
Baseball
1994 · Director, Producer, Executive Producer, Writer, Director of Photography
Late Night with Conan O'Brien
1993 · Self - Guest
Late Show with David Letterman
1993 · Self - Guest
The Civil War
1990 · Writer, Director, Executive Producer, Director of Photography
Os Simpsons
1989 · Ken Burns (voice)
This Week
1981
CNN Special Report
1980 · Self
60 Minutes
1968 · Self
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
1962 · Self
Face the Nation
1954 · Self
Today
1952 · Self