Ken Burns | |
|---|---|
 Burns in 2018 | |
| Born | Kenneth Lauren Burns (1953-07-29)July 29, 1953 (age 72) Brooklyn, New York, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Hampshire College (BA) |
| Occupation | Filmmaker |
| Years active | 1970–present |
| Notable work |
|
| Spouses | |
| Children | 4, includingSarah andLilly Burns |
| Relatives | Ric Burns (brother) |
| Website | kenburns |
Kenneth Lauren Burns (born July 29, 1953) is an American filmmaker known for his documentary films and television series, many of which chronicle United Stateshistory andculture. His work is often produced in association withWETA-TV or theNational Endowment for the Humanities and distributed byPBS. Burns lives in the small town ofWalpole, New Hampshire.
Burns's widely known documentary series includeThe Civil War (1990),Baseball (1994),Jazz (2001),The War (2007),The National Parks: America's Best Idea (2009),Prohibition (2011),The Roosevelts (2014),The Vietnam War (2017), andCountry Music (2019). He was also executive producer of bothThe West (1996), andCancer: The Emperor of All Maladies (2015).[1] Burns's documentaries have earned twoAcademy Award nominations (for 1981'sBrooklyn Bridge and 1985'sThe Statue of Liberty) and have won severalEmmy Awards, among other honors.
Kenneth Lauren Burns was born on July 29, 1953, inBrooklyn, New York.[2] His parents were Lyla Smith (née Tupper) Burns,[3] a biotechnician,[4] and Robert Kyle Burns Jr., who at the time of Ken's birth was a graduate student in cultural anthropology atColumbia University.[3] The documentary filmmakerRic Burns is his younger brother.[5][6]
Burns' academic family moved frequently, including toSaint-Véran, France;Newark, Delaware; andAnn Arbor, Michigan; where his father taught at theUniversity of Michigan.[4] Burns describes growing up as "hippies" in Ann Arbor.[7]
Burns' mother was diagnosed with breast cancer when he was three, and she died when he was 11,[4] a circumstance that he said helped shape his career; he credited his psychologist father-in-law, Gerald Stechler,[8] with a significant insight: "He told me that my whole work was an attempt to make people long gone come back alive."[4] He recalls:
a searing memory of the summer of 1962, when I was almost 9, joining our family dinner on a hot, sweltering day in a tract house in a development in Newark, Delaware, and seeing my mother crying. She had just learned, and my brother and I had just been told, that she would be dead of cancer within six months. But that’s not what was causing her tears. Our inadequate health insurance had practically bankrupted us, and our neighbors – equally struggling working people – had taken up a collection and presented my parents with six crisp $20 bills – $120 in total – enough to keep us solvent for more than a month. In that moment, I understood something about community and courage, about constant struggle and little victories. That hot June evening was a victory. And I have spent my entire professional life trying to resurrect small moments within the larger sweep of American history, trying to find our better angels in the most difficult of circumstances, trying to wake the dead, to heartheir stories.[9]
Well-read as a child, he engrossed himself in the family encyclopedia, preferring history to fiction.
Upon receiving an8 mm film movie camera for his 17th birthday, he shot a documentary about an Ann Arbor factory. He graduated fromPioneer High School in Ann Arbor in 1971.[10] Declining reduced tuition to attend the University of Michigan, he instead attendedHampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, where students are graded through narrative evaluations rather than letter grades, and where students create self-directed academic concentrations instead of choosing a traditional major.[4]
Burns worked in a record store to help pay his tuition. He lived on as little as $2,500 in two years inWalpole, New Hampshire.[11] Burns studied under photographersJerome Liebling,Elaine Mayes, and others. He describes Liebling as his "principal mentor."[7] He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in film studies and design[12] in 1975.[4]
In 1976, Burns, Elaine Mayes, and college classmateRoger Sherman founded a production company named Florentine Films in Walpole, New Hampshire. The company's name was borrowed from Mayes's hometown ofFlorence, Massachusetts. Another Hampshire College student, Buddy Squires, was invited to succeed Mayes as a founding member one year later.[13][14] The trio were later joined by a fourth member,Lawrence "Larry" Hott. Hott did not actually matriculate at Hampshire, but worked on films there. Hott had begun his career as an attorney, having attended nearbyWestern New England Law School.[13]
Each member works independently, but releases content under the shared name of Florentine Films.[15] As such, their individual "subsidiary" companies includeKen Burns Media,Sherman Pictures, andHott Productions. Burns's oldest child,Sarah, is also an employee of the company as of 2020.[16]
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Burns initially worked as acinematographer for theBBC, Italian television, and others. In 1977, having completed some documentaryshort films, he began work on adaptingDavid McCullough's bookThe Great Bridge, about the construction of theBrooklyn Bridge.[12] Developing a signature style of documentary filmmaking in which he "adopted the technique of cutting rapidly from one still picture to another in a fluid, linear fashion [and] then pepped up the visuals with 'first hand' narration gleaned from contemporary writings and recited by top stage and screen actors",[17] Burns made the feature documentaryBrooklyn Bridge (1981),[18] which was narrated by David McCullough, earned anAcademy Award nomination for Best Documentary and ran onPBS in the United States.
Following another documentary,The Shakers: Hands to Work, Hearts to God (1984), Burns was nominated again for an Oscar forThe Statue of Liberty (1985). Burns frequently collaborates with author and historianGeoffrey C. Ward, notably on documentaries such asThe Civil War,Jazz,Baseball, and the 10-part TV seriesThe Vietnam War (aired September 2017).
Burns has built a long, successful career producing and directing well-received television documentaries and documentaryminiseries, mostly on different aspects of United States history. His body of work covers diverse subjects, including art (Thomas Hart Benton, 1988), mass media (Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio, 1991), sports (Baseball, 1994, updated with10th Inning, 2010), political history (Thomas Jefferson, 1997), music (Jazz, 2001;Country Music, 2019), literature (Mark Twain, 2001;Hemingway, 2021), environmentalism (The National Parks, 2009), and war (the 15-hourWorld War II documentaryThe War, 2007; and the 11-hourThe Civil War, 1990, whichAll Media Guide says "many consider his 'chef d'oeuvre'").[17] "It's the most important event in American history, [...] I think the Civil War is an unbelievable guide to who we are" he says in interviews.[19]
In 2007, Burns concluded an agreement with PBS to produce work for the network well into the next decade.[20] According to a 2017 piece inThe New Yorker, Burns and his company, Florentine Films, have selected topics for documentaries slated for release by 2030. These topics includecountry music, theMayo Clinic,Muhammad Ali,Ernest Hemingway, theAmerican Revolution,Lyndon B. Johnson,Barack Obama,Winston Churchill, the U.S. criminal justice system, andAfrican-American history from the Civil War to theGreat Migration.[21] On April 5, 2021,Hemingway, a three-episode, six-hour documentary, a recapitulation of Hemingway's life, labors, and loves, debuted on thePublic Broadcasting System, co-produced and directed by Burns andLynn Novick.[22]
In April 2025, Burns, renowned for his explorations of U.S. history, presented a two-part documentary onLeonardo da Vinci, broadcast onArte :Art and Experience, followed byThe Quest for Beauty. This project marked a rare foray beyond the U.S. context, highlighting thepolymath genius of theItalian Renaissance. During a visit to Paris, Burns shared his approach and drew parallels between his narrative style and Leonardo's working method, both driven by insatiable curiosity and a quest to understand the world. The documentary applied theKen Burns effect to a landmark figure of art and science, offering a fresh perspective on Leonardo da Vinci.[23][24]
In 1979, Burns moved fromManhattan, New York City, toWalpole, New Hampshire, where he rented a house that he eventually bought. The original reason for the move was that his rent in Manhattan rose from US$275 to $325 (from US$1,191 to $1,408 in 2024 dollars). He has credited the move to the small town with ultimately jump-starting his later success, and he still resides there to this day.[25]
In 1982, Burns married Amy Stechler. The couple had two daughters,Sarah andLilly.[26][12] Their marriage ended in divorce in 1993.[citation needed]
On October 18, 2003, Burns married for a second time to Julie Deborah Brown, daughter of Leslie Mundjer and theSmith Barney senior vice president Richard Brown. Julie Deborah Brown founded Room to Grow, a non-profit organization providing aid to children separated from their families.[27] They have two daughters.[citation needed]
Burns is a descendant ofJohannes de Peyster Sr. through Gerardus Clarkson, anAmerican Revolutionary War physician fromPhiladelphia, and he is a distant relative of Scottish poetRobert Burns.[28][29] In 2014, Burns appeared inHenry Louis Gates'sFinding Your Roots where he discovered that he is a descendant of aslave owner from theDeep South, in addition to having a lineage which traces back to Colonial Americans ofLoyalist allegiance during theAmerican Revolution.[30]
Burns is an avidquilt collector. About one-third of the quilts from his personal collection were displayed at theInternational Quilt Museum at theUniversity of Nebraska–Lincoln from January 19 to May 13, 2018.[31]
When asked if he would ever make a film regarding his mother Lyla, Burns responded: "All of my films are about her. I don't think I could do it directly, because of how intensely painful it is."[4]
Burns has recounted his devotion to theNew York Times crossword puzzle, saying in 2022, "There has not been a day since [appearing in the documentaryWordplay] when I haven't done the New York Times crossword puzzle."[7]
On episode #2336 ofThe Joe Rogan Experience, Burns was interviewed by podcasterJoe Rogan about his life and filmography.[32]
Burns is a longtime supporter of theDemocratic Party, describing himself as a “Yellow dog Democrat” and contributing almost $40,000 in political donations.[33] In 2008, theDemocratic National Committee chose Burns to produce the introductory video for SenatorTed Kennedy's August 2008 speech to theDemocratic National Convention, a video described byPolitico as a "Burns-crafted tribute casting him [Kennedy] as the modernUlysses bringing his party home to port."[34][35]
In August 2009, Kennedy died, and Burns produced a short eulogy video at his funeral. In endorsingBarack Obama for the U.S. presidency in December 2007, Burns compared Obama toAbraham Lincoln.[36] He said he had planned to be a regular contributor toCountdown with Keith Olbermann onCurrent TV.[37] In 2016, he also delivered a commencement speech atStanford University criticizingDonald Trump. He also criticized the media for devoting so much airtime to him and failing to give him scrutiny: "Many of our media institutions have largely failed to expose this charlatan, torn between a nagging responsibility to good journalism and the big ratings a media circus always delivers. In fact, they have given him the abundant airtime he so desperately craves, so much so that it has actually worn down our natural human revulsion to this kind of behavior. Hey, he’s rich; he must be doing something right. He is not.Edward R. Murrow would have exposed this naked emperor months ago."[9][38]
In 2023, a 2013 photograph of Ken Burns andClarence Thomas at aKoch Brothers fundraising event was made public in aPro Publica article about Justice Thomas' connections to right-wing activists.[39] Burns stated that the encounter was a brief social encounter resulting fromCharles Koch's support ofPBS programming.[40]
Altogether, Burns's work has garnered several awards, including two Oscar nominations, two Grammy Awards and 15 Emmy Awards.[18][41]
The Civil War received more than 40 major film and television awards, including twoEmmy Awards, twoGrammy Awards (one forBest Traditional Folk Album), the Producer of the Year Award from theProducers Guild of America, aPeople's Choice Award, aPeabody Award, aduPont-Columbia Award, aD. W. Griffith Award, and the $50,000Lincoln Prize.[44][45][46]
In 1991, Burns received theNational Humanities Medal, then called theCharles Frankel Prize in the Humanities.
In 1991, Burns received the Golden Plate Award of theAmerican Academy of Achievement.[47]
In 2004, Burns received the S. Roger Horchow Award for Greatest Public Service by a Private Citizen, an award given out annually byJefferson Awards.[48]
In 2008 Burns was honored by theAcademy of Television Arts & Sciences with aLifetime Achievement Award.[18]
In 2008 Burns received The Lincoln Forum'sRichard Nelson Current Award of Achievement.[49]
In 2010, theNational Parks Conservation Association honored him andDayton Duncan with the Robin W. Winks Award for Enhancing Public Understanding of National Parks. The award recognizes an individual or organization that has effectively communicated the values of the National Park System to the American public.[50]As of 2010[update], there is a Ken Burns Wing at the Jerome Liebling Center for Film, Photography and Video at Hampshire College.[51]
Burns was elected to theAmerican Philosophical Society in 2011.[52]
In 2012, Burns received theWashington University International Humanities Medal.[53] The medal, awarded biennially and accompanied by a cash prize of $25,000, is given to honor a person whose humanistic endeavors in scholarship, journalism, literature, or the arts have made a difference in the world. Past winners include Turkish novelistOrhan Pamuk in 2006, journalistMichael Pollan in 2008, and novelist and nonfiction writerFrancine Prose in 2010.[54]
In 2013, Burns received theJohn Steinbeck Award, an award presented annually by Steinbeck's eldest son, Thomas, in collaboration with the John Steinbeck Family Foundation,San Jose State University, and theMartha Heasley Cox Center for Steinbeck Studies.[55]
In May 2015, Burns gave the commencement address atWashington University in St. Louis and received an honorary doctorate of humanities.[56]
Burns was theGrand Marshal for the 2016Pasadena Tournament of Roses'Rose Parade on New Year's Day inPasadena, California.[57] TheNational Endowment for the Humanities selected Burns to deliver the 2016Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in thehumanities, on the topic of race in America.[58] He was the 2017 recipient ofThe Nichols-Chancellor's Medal atVanderbilt University.[59]
In 2019, he received an honorary degree fromBrown University.[60]
In 2022 he served as the commencement speaker at theUniversity of Pennsylvania and received an Honorary Doctor of Arts.[61]
In 2025, he received the Critics Choice Documentary Awards IMPACT Award. The prestigious award recognizes documentarians whose work has "illuminated our shared story, made complex issues accessible to broad audiences, and sparked meaningful dialogue that inspires reflection and action. Ken Burns exemplifies this impact through a career that has brought the American experience vividly to life and deepened the nation’s understanding of itself." It was presented at the 10th Annual Critics Choice Documentary Awards on November 9 at the Edison Ballroom, New York City.
Burns frequently incorporates simple musical leitmotifs or melodies. For example,The Civil War features a distinctive violin melody throughout, "Ashokan Farewell", which was performed for the film by its composer, fiddlerJay Ungar. One critic noted, "One of the most memorable things aboutThe Civil War was its haunting, repeated violin melody, whose thin, yearning notes seemed somehow to sum up all the pathos of that great struggle."[62]
Burns often gives life to still photographs by slowly zooming out subjects of interest and panning from one subject to another. It has long been used in film production where it is known as the "rostrum camera". This technique, possible in many professional and home software applications, is now termed the "Ken Burns effect" inApple'siPhoto,iMovie, andFinal Cut Pro X software applications.Burns stated in a 2009 interview that he initially declined to have his name associated with the software because of his stance to refuse commercial endorsements. However, Apple chief Steve Jobs negotiated to give Burns Apple equipment, which Burns donated to nonprofit organizations.[63]
As a museum retrospective noted, "HisPBS specials [are] strikingly out of step with the visual pyrotechnics and frenetic pacing of most reality-based TV programming, relying instead on techniques that are literally decades old, although Burns reintegrates these constituent elements into a wholly new and highly complex textual arrangement."[12]
In a 2011 interview, Burns stated that he admires and is influenced by filmmakerErrol Morris.[64]
These three short films are collected and distributed together asSeeing, Searching, Being:William Segal.
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The award-winning filmmaker has slept in the same bedroom for over four decades. He credits his home with allowing him to make the films everyone said he couldn't.
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