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{{Short description|American documentarian and filmmaker (born 1953)}}{{for-multi|the English football referee|Ken Burns (referee)|other people named Kenneth Burns|Kenneth Burns (disambiguation)}}{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2017}}

factoids

| birth_place = Brooklyn, New York, U.S.Democratic Party (United States)>DemocraticHampshire College (Bachelor of Arts>BA)| occupation = Filmmaker| years_active = 1970–present ''The Civil War (miniseries) (1990) > Baseball (TV series) (1994) > (The National Parks: America's Best Idea (2009) > The Roosevelts (miniseries) (2014) > The Vietnam War (TV series) (2017) > Country Music'' (2019)}} {{marriageAmy Stechler Burns>1982end=div}} Julie Deborah Brown|2003}}}} Sarah Burns (writer filmmaker) > Lilly Burns Willa Burns}}| relatives = Ric Burns (brother)kenburns.com}}}}Kenneth Lauren Burns (born July 29, 1953) is an American filmmaker and historian known for his documentary films and television series, many of which chronicle American history and culture. His work is often produced in association with WETA-TV and/or the National Endowment for the Humanities and distributed by PBS.His widely known documentary series include The 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), and Country Music (2019). He was also executive producer of both The West (1996), and (Cancer (film)|Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies) (2015).NEWS, Genzlinger, Neil, Review: In 'Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies,' Battling an Opportunistic Killer,weblink March 27, 2015, The New York Times, March 31, 2015, Burns's documentaries have earned two Academy Award nominations (for 1981's Brooklyn Bridge and 1985's The Statue of Liberty) and have won several Emmy Awards, among other honors.

Early life and education

Burns was born on July 29, 1953,WEB,weblink Ken Burns Biography (1953–), Filmreference.com, August 19, 2011, in Brooklyn, New York, to Lyla Smith (née Tupper) Burns,BOOK,weblink Ken Burns, Encyclopedia of World Biography via BookRags.com, n.d., a biotechnician,WEB,weblink Good Eye. The Interview With Ken Burns: The renowned filmmaker of 'The Civil War' turns his eye from the nation's past to our national pastime, Joan, Walsh, San Francisco Focus, KQED (TV), KQED via Online-Communicator.com, 1994,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20120327000654weblink">weblink March 27, 2012, live, and Robert Kyle Burns Jr., at the time a graduate student in cultural anthropology at Columbia University in Manhattan. The documentary filmmaker Ric Burns is his younger brother.WEB,weblinkweblink dead, May 17, 2016, Ken Burns, biography at FlorentineFilms.com, n.d., NEWS, Wadler, Joyce, November 17, 1999, PUBLIC LIVES; No Civil War, but a Brotherly Indifference, The New York Times,weblink November 4, 2016, Burns's academic family moved frequently. Among places they called home were Saint-Véran, France; Newark, Delaware; and Ann Arbor, Michigan, where his father taught at the University of Michigan.Burns's mother was found to have breast cancer when he was three, and she died when he was 11, a circumstance that he said helped shape his career; he credited his psychologist father-in-law, Gerald Stechler,WEB, GERALD STECHLER OBITUARY,weblink The New York Times, 29 August 2022, 19 December 2013, with a significant insight: "He told me that my whole work was an attempt to make people long gone come back alive." Well-read as a child, he absorbed the family encyclopedia, preferring history to fiction.Upon receiving an 8 mm film movie camera for his 17th birthday, he shot a documentary about an Ann Arbor factory. He graduated from Pioneer High School in Ann Arbor in 1971.Ann Arbor Public Schools Educational Foundation, weblink" title="https:/-/web.archive.org/web/20161013073950weblink">weblink (accessed October 29, 2013, recovered from Internet Archive). Turning down reduced tuition at the University of Michigan, he attended Hampshire 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.Burns worked in a record store to pay his tuition. Living on as little as $2,500 in two years in Walpole, New Hampshire,WEB,weblink The Online Communicator: Ken Burns, Online-communicator.com, 2019-05-06, April 8, 2012,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20120408164010weblink">weblink dead, Burns studied under photographers Jerome Liebling, Elaine Mayes, and others. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in film studies and designWEB,weblink Burns, Ken: U.S. Documentary Film Maker, The Museum of Broadcast Communications, n.d., Gary, Edgerton,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20110629014442weblink">weblink June 29, 2011, live, in 1975.{{Anchor|Florentine Films}}

Florentine Films

In 1976, Burns, Elaine Mayes, and college classmate Roger Sherman founded a production company called Florentine Films in Walpole, New Hampshire. The company's name was borrowed from Mayes's hometown of Florence, Massachusetts. Another Hampshire College student, Buddy Squires, was invited to succeed Mayes as a founding member one year later.NEWS,weblink The Florentine Four: Ken Burns and Partners Look Back on 30 Years of Documentary Production, International Documentary Association, September 19, 2017, en, NEWS,weblink Outstanding Documentary Achievement in Cinematography Award: The Visual Poet: Buddy Squires, International Documentary Association, September 19, 2017, en, 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 nearby Western New England Law School.Each member works independently, but releases content under the shared name of Florentine Films.WEB,weblink Florentine Films – Burns, Hott, Sherman & Squires, Florentinefilms.com, September 18, 2017, As such, their individual "subsidiary" companies include Ken Burns Media, Sherman Pictures, and Hott Productions. Burns's oldest child, Sarah, is also an employee of the company as of 2020.NEWS,weblink The Filmmakers – Ken Burns, kenburns.com, September 19, 2017, en-US,

Career

File:Ken Burns (48980694488) (cropped).jpg|thumb|upright|Burns speaks at the Library of CongressLibrary of CongressBurns initially worked as a cinematographer for the BBC, Italian television, and others. In 1977, having completed some documentary short films, he began work on adapting David McCullough's book The Great Bridge, about the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge. 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", Burns made the feature documentary Brooklyn Bridge (1981),PRESS RELEASE,weblink Academy Award Nominated and Emmy Winner Ken Burns Joins MasterClass to Teach Documentary Filmmaking, MasterClass, PR Newswire, en, 2019-12-05, which was narrated by David McCullough, and earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary and ran on PBS in the United States.Following another documentary, (The Shakers: Hands to Work, Hearts to God) (1984), Burns was Oscar-nominated again for The Statue of Liberty (1985). Burns frequently collaborates with author and historian Geoffrey C. Ward, notably on documentaries such as The Civil War, Jazz, Baseball, and the 10 part TV series The Vietnam War (aired September 2017).Burns has built a long, successful career directing and producing well-received television documentaries and documentary miniseries. His oeuvre 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 with 10th Inning, 2010), political history (Thomas Jefferson, 1997), music (Jazz, 2001; Country Music, 2019), literature (Mark Twain, 2001; Hemingway, 2021), environmentalism ((The National Parks: America's Best Idea|The National Parks), 2009), and war (the 15-hour World War II documentary The War, 2007; the 11-hour The Civil War, 1990, which All Media Guide says "many consider his 'chef d'oeuvre{{'"}}).NEWS,weblinkweblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20071029155713weblink">weblink dead, October 29, 2007, Ken Burns biography, Hal, Erickson, Movies & TV Dept., The New York Times, Hal Erickson (author), 2007, September 22, 2011, This single source gives two birthplaces. Under the header list, it reads "Birthplace: Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA." In the prose biography, it reads "Brooklyn-born Ken Burns..."In 2007, Burns made an agreement with PBS to produce work for the network well into the next decade.WEB,weblink Ken Burns {{!, Biography, Documentaries, & Facts |website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en|access-date=2019-08-08}} According to a 2017 piece in The New Yorker, Burns and his company, Florentine Films, have selected topics for documentaries slated for release by 2030. These topics include country music, the Mayo Clinic, Muhammad Ali, Ernest Hemingway, the American Revolution, Lyndon B. Johnson, Barack Obama, Winston Churchill, the American criminal justice system, and African-American history from the Civil War to the Great Migration.MAGAZINE, Parker, Ian, Ken Burns's American Canon,weblink October 5, 2017, The New Yorker, September 4, 2017, On April 5, 2021, Hemingway, a three-episode, six-hour documentary, a recapitulation of Hemingway's life, labors, and loves, debuted on the Public Broadcasting System, co-produced and directed by Burns and Lynn Novick.What to "Watch on Monday: The start of Ken Burns' 'Hemingway' documentary", News & Observer, Brooke Cain, April 5, 2021. Retrieved April 8, 2021.

Personal life

In 1982, Burns married Amy Stechler. The couple had two daughters, Sarah and Lilly.WEB,weblink Lilly Burns, IMDb.com, 2019-07-09, Their marriage ended in divorce in 1993.{{As of|2017}}, Burns was residing in Walpole, New Hampshire. He and Julie Deborah Brown, daughter of Leslie Mundjer and the Smith Barney senior vice president Richard Brown and stepdaughter of Ellen Brown, married on October 18, 2003. Julie Deborah Brown founded Room to Grow, a non-profit providing aid to babies in poor families.NEWS,weblink Weddings/Celebrations; Julie Brown, Ken Burns, The New York Times, October 19, 2003,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20111005162223weblink">weblink October 5, 2011, live, They have two daughters.Burns is a descendant of Johannes de Peyster Sr. through Gerardus Clarkson, an American Revolutionary War physician from Philadelphia, and he is a distant relative of Scottish poet Robert Burns.Stated on Finding Your Roots, PBS, October 7, 2014WEB,weblink Nerding Out with Ken Burns & Rebranding Marijuana, Public Radio International, In 2014, Burns appeared in Henry Louis Gates's Finding Your Roots where he discovered that he is a descendant of a slave owner from the Deep South, in addition to having a lineage which traces back to Colonial Americans of Loyalist allegiance during the American Revolution.NEWS,weblink Henry Louis Gates probes celebs' origins on PBS, Susan, Whitall, September 23, 2014, August 26, 2015, The Detroit News, Burns is an avid quilt collector. About one-third of the quilts from his personal collection were displayed at The International Quilt Study Center & Museum at the University of Nebraska from January 19 to May 13, 2018.WEB,weblink 'Uncovered: The Ken Burns Collection' Opens, January 8, 2018, February 17, 2019, International Quilt Study Center & Museum,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20180503153249weblink">weblink May 3, 2018, dead, mdy-all, 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."

Politics

Burns is a longtime supporter of the Democratic Party, describing himself as a “Yellow dog Democrat” and contributing almost $40,000 in political donations.WEB,weblink Ken Burns's Federal Campaign Contribution Report, Newsmeat, dead,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20110815003542weblink">weblink August 15, 2011, In 2008, the Democratic National Committee chose Burns to produce the introductory video for Senator Ted Kennedy's August 2008 speech to the Democratic National Convention, a video described by Politico as a "Burns-crafted tribute casting him [Kennedy] as the modern Ulysses bringing his party home to port."NEWS,weblink Filmmaker Ken Burns behind documentary tribute to Sen. Ted Kennedy, August 24, 2008, M.E. Sprengelmeyer, Rocky Mountain News, August 26, 2009,weblink" title="archive.today/20130208174034weblink">weblink February 8, 2013, live, NEWS, Rogers, David, Ailing Kennedy: 'The dream lives on',weblink June 19, 2011, Politico, August 26, 2008, In August 2009, Kennedy died, and Burns produced a short eulogy video at his funeral. In endorsing Barack Obama for the U.S. presidency in December 2007, Burns compared Obama to Abraham Lincoln.NEWS, MacGillis, Alec, Ken Burns Compares Obama to Lincoln,weblink June 19, 2011, The Washington Post, December 18, 2007, He said he had planned to be a regular contributor to Countdown with Keith Olbermann on Current TV.NEWS, Guthrie, Marisa, Michael Moore to Be a Contributor on Keith Olbermann's New Show,weblink June 19, 2011, The Hollywood Reporter, May 11, 2011, In 2016, he also gave a commencement speech for Stanford University criticizing Donald Trump.NEWS, Gladnick, P. J.,weblink Prepared text of the 2016 Stanford Commencement address by Ken Burns, Stanford News, June 12, 2016, July 19, 2018, NEWS, Filmmaker Ken Burns destroys Donald Trump during Stanford Speech,weblink Film Industry Network, June 13, 2016, In 2020, Burns endorsed Ed Markey in the Massachusetts Senate Democratic Primary.WEB,weblink Filmmaker Ken Burns Endorses Ed Markey for United States Senate, Ed Markey for Senate, In 2023, a 2013 photograph of Ken Burns and Clarence Thomas at a Koch Brothers fundraising event was made public in a Pro Publica article about Justice Thomas' ties to right wing activists.WEB, Kaplan, Joshua, Elliot, Justin, Mierjeski, Alex, Clarence Thomas Secretly Participated in Koch Network Donor Events,weblink Pro Publica, September 22, 2023, 23 September 2023, Burns stated that the encounter was a brief social encounter resulting from Charles Koch's support of PBS programming.WEB, Huston, Kaitlin, Ken Burns Distances Himself From Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas After Photo,weblink Variety, September 22, 2023, 23 September 2023,

Awards and honors

File:Ken Burns 2014.jpg|thumb|upright|Burns with the Peabody Award for The Central Park Five in 2014]]Altogether Burns's work has garnered several awards, including two Oscar nominations, two Grammy Awards and 15 Emmy Awards.WEB,weblink Pbs.org, About the filmmakers, July 12, 2017, July 15, 2017,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20170715163831weblink">weblink dead,

• 1982 nomination, Academy Award for Documentary Feature: Brooklyn Bridge (1981);WEB,weblink The 54th Academy Awards &124; 1982, Oscars.org &124; Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences,
• 1986 nomination, Academy Award for Documentary Feature: The Statue of Liberty (1985);WEB,weblink The 58th Academy Awards &124; 1986, Oscars.org &124; Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences,
• 1995 Emmy Award for Outstanding Informational Series: Baseball (1994);
• 2010 Emmy Award for Outstanding Non-fiction Series: (The National Parks: America's Best Idea) (2009).

The Civil War received more than 40 major film and television awards, including two Emmy Awards, two Grammy Awards (one for Best Traditional Folk Album), the Producer of the Year Award from the Producers Guild of America, a People's Choice Award, a Peabody Award, a duPont-Columbia Award, a D. W. Griffith Award, and the $50,000 Lincoln Prize.{{Citation|title=The Civil War|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098769/awards|access-date=September 19, 2017}}WEB,weblink Nonesuch Records The Civil War [Soundtrack], Nonesuch.com, November 30, 1990, en, September 19, 2017, WEB,weblink About the Series {{!, The Civil War {{!}} PBS|website=Pbs.org|access-date=September 19, 2017}}In 1991, Burns received the National Humanities Medal, then called the Charles Frankel Prize in the Humanities.In 1991, Burns received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.WEB, Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement, www.achievement.org, American Academy of Achievement,weblink In 2004, Burns received the S. Roger Horchow Award for Greatest Public Service by a Private Citizen, an award given out annually by Jefferson Awards.WEB,weblink National Winners | public service awards, Jefferson Awards.org, December 25, 2013,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20101124043935weblink">weblink November 24, 2010, dead, In 2008 Burns was honored by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences with a Lifetime Achievement Award.In 2008 Burns received The Lincoln Forum's Richard Nelson Current Award of Achievement.The Lincoln ForumIn 2010, the National Parks Conservation Association honored him and Dayton 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.WEB,weblink Awards and Recognition, National Parks Conservation Association, {{as of|2010}}, there is a Ken Burns Wing at the Jerome Liebling Center for Film, Photography and Video at Hampshire College.WEB,weblink Kuhn Riddle Architects, Hampshire College – The Ken Burns Wing, 2010,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20120402192616weblink">weblink April 2, 2012, dead, mdy-all, Burns was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2011.WEB, APS Member History,weblink 2021-04-02, search.amphilsoc.org, In 2012, Burns received the Washington University International Humanities Medal."Ken Burns Recognized for Epic Contributions to the Humanities" {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160616154541weblink |date=June 16, 2016 }}, Washington Magazine, February 2013. 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 novelist Orhan Pamuk in 2006, journalist Michael Pollan in 2008, and novelist and nonfiction writer Francine Prose in 2010.WEB,weblink Washington University's International Humanities Medal | the Figure in the Carpet, dead,weblink September 30, 2015, mdy-all, In 2013, Burns received the John 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 The National Steinbeck Center.WEB,weblink Ken Burns to Receive Steinbeck Award, SJSU News, December 25, 2013, In May 2015, Burns gave the commencement address at Washington University in St. Louis and received an honorary doctorate of humanities.WEB, 2015-05-15, Ken Burns' 2015 Commencement address at Washington University in St. Louis - The Source - Washington University in St. Louis,weblink 2022-06-12, The Source, en-US, Burns was the Grand Marshal for the 2016 Pasadena Tournament of Roses' Rose Parade on New Year's Day in Pasadena, California.NEWS, Cormaci, Carol,weblink Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns named 2016 Rose Parade grand marshal, Los Angeles Times, November 10, 2015, March 12, 2016, The National Endowment for the Humanities selected Burns to deliver the 2016 Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities, on the topic of race in America.NEWS, Manly, Lorne,weblink Ken Burns to Discuss Race in Jefferson Lecture, The New York Times, January 18, 2016, March 12, 2016, He was the 2017 recipient of The Nichols-Chancellor's Medal at Vanderbilt University.WEB,weblink Follow the better angels of their nature, grads are told, Jim, Patterson, Vanderbilt University, In 2019, he received an honorary degree from Brown University.WEB,weblink Ken Burns, John Krasinski to get honorary degrees from Brown University, providencejournal.com, In 2022 he served as the commencement speaker at the University of Pennsylvania and received an Honorary Doctor of Arts.WEB,weblink's%202022%20Commencement%20Speaker%20and%20Honorary%20Degree%20Recipients,-March%201%2C%202022&text=Award%2Dwinning%20documentary%20filmmaker%20Ken,an%20honorary%20degree%20from%20Penn., Penn's 2022 Commencement Speaker and Honorary Degree Recipients, University of Pennsylvania Alamanac,

Style

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, fiddler Jay Ungar. One critic noted, "One of the most memorable things about The Civil War was its haunting, repeated violin melody, whose thin, yearning notes seemed somehow to sum up all the pathos of that great struggle."NEWS,weblink Shame and Glory: The West holds a mirror before the double face of a nation, Gary, Kamiya, Salon.com, n.d., dead,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20090413131926weblink">weblink April 13, 2009, File:Ken Burns effect.ogv|thumb|Ken Burns effectKen Burns effectBurns 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" in Apple's iPhoto, iMovie, and Final 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.WEB, Allen, Austin, Big Think Interview with Ken Burns, December 10, 2009,weblink Big Think, April 23, 2014, As a museum retrospective noted, "His PBS 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."In a 2011 interview, Burns stated that he admires and is influenced by filmmaker Errol Morris.JOURNAL,weblink Ken Burns on PBS Funding, Being a 'Yellow-Dog Democrat,' & Missing Walter Cronkite, Meredith, Bragg, Nick, Gillespie, October 3, 2011, Reason (magazine), Reason,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20120503155636weblink">weblink May 3, 2012, live,

Filmography

File:"The Vietnam War" Preview and Conversation with Ken Burns.webm|thumb|Conversation with Ken Burns about The Vietnam War. Video by the LBJ Library]]

• Brooklyn Bridge (1981)Listed as "Kenneth Lauren Burns"
• (The Shakers: Hands to Work, Hearts to God) (1984)
• The Statue of Liberty (1985)
• Huey Long (1985)
• Thomas Hart Benton (1988)
• The Congress (1988)
• The Civil War (1990; 9 episodes)
• (Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio) (1992)
• Baseball (1994; 9 episodes – updated with The Tenth Inning in 2010, with Lynn Novick)
• Thomas Jefferson (1997; 2 episodes)
• (Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery) (1997)
• Frank Lloyd Wright (1998, with Lynn Novick){{Citation|title=Frank Lloyd Wright|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0144937/|access-date=2019-12-05}}
• (Not for Ourselves Alone|Not for Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Susan B. Anthony) (1999)WEB,weblink Not for Ourselves Alone. JMMH video review, www.albany.edu, 2019-12-05,
• Jazz (2001; 10 episodes)WEB,weblink Home {{!, Ken Burns|website=Jazz|language=en|access-date=2019-12-05}}
• Mark Twain (2001)
• (Horatio's Drive|Horatio's Drive: America's First Road Trip) (2003)WEB,weblink Home {{!, Ken Burns|website=Horatio's Drive|language=en|access-date=2019-12-05}}
• (Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson) (2005; 2 episodes)WEB,weblink Home {{!, Ken Burns|website=Unforgivable Blackness|language=en|access-date=2019-12-05}}
• The War (2007, with Lynn Novick; 7 episodes)
• (The National Parks: America's Best Idea) (2009; 6 episodes)
• Prohibition (2011, with Lynn Novick; 3 episodes)WEB,weblink Prohibition, PBS.org, 2011,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20120504033223weblink">weblink May 4, 2012, live,
• The Dust Bowl (2012; 4 episodes)WEB,weblink Ken Burns Seeking Dustbowl Stories, OETA, August 19, 2011, dead,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20110906072055weblink">weblink September 6, 2011,
• The Central Park Five (2012, with Sarah Burns and David McMahon)WEB,weblinkweblink" title="archive.today/20130102154459weblink">weblink dead, January 2, 2013, Introduction, FlorentineFilms.com, n.d.,
• Yosemite: A Gathering of Spirit (2013)The World Premiere of Yosemite: A Gathering of Spirit {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131023060903weblink|date=October 23, 2013}}, Yosemite Conservancy Retrieved October 21, 2013.
• The Address (2014)WEB,weblinkweblink dead, December 5, 2019, Q&A: Ken Burns Discusses His New Documentary, The Address, 2014-04-05, National Geographic News, en, 2019-12-05,
• (The Roosevelts (miniseries)|The Roosevelts: An Intimate History) (2014; 7 episodes)NEWS, Moore, Frazier, PBS' 'The Roosevelts' portrays an epic threesome,weblink September 10, 2014, AP News, September 10, 2014,
• Jackie Robinson (2016, with Sarah Burns and David McMahon; 2 episodes)WEB,weblink Filmmaker Ken Burns discusses upcoming projects, Wash U commencement speech, more, Cladwell, Evita, May 14, 2014, St. Louis Public Radio, August 26, 2015,
• (Defying the Nazis: The Sharps' War) (2016, with Artemis Joukowsky)WEB,weblink Defying the Nazis: The Sharps' War; A new film directed by Ken Burns and Artemis Joukowsky, September 16, 2016,
• The Vietnam War (2017, with Lynn Novick; 10 episodes)WEB,weblink Vietnam, Ken Burns media, August 26, 2015,
• The Mayo Clinic: Faith – Hope – Science (2018, with Erik Ewers and Christopher Loren Ewers)
• Country Music (2019, 8 episodes)WEB, Upcoming Films,weblink Ken Burns Media, LLC, July 6, 2017,
• Hemingway (2021, with Lynn Novick; 3 episodes)WEB, Ernest Hemingway,weblink Ken Burns Media, LLC, June 3, 2020,
• Muhammad Ali (2021, with Sarah Burns and David McMahon; 4 episodes)WEB, Ali,weblink Ken Burns, Ken Burns Media, LLC, February 26, 2020,
• Benjamin Franklin (2022, 2 episodes)WEB, Benjamin Franklin,weblink Ken Burns, Ken Burns Media, LLC, February 26, 2020,
• The U.S. and the Holocaust (2022, 3 episodes, 7 hours total; produced and directed with the assistance of Lynn Novick and Sarah Botstein)WEB, The Holocaust & the United States,weblink Ken Burns, Ken Burns Media, LLC, March 28, 2022,
• The American Buffalo (2023)WEB, Ken Burns,weblink Ken Burns, Ken Burns Media, LLC, November 26, 2020, NEWS, Mabie, Nora, January 18, 2023, New Ken Burns film on buffalo includes Indigenous voices from Montana,weblink 2023-02-09, Missoulian, en,

Future releases

• Leonardo da Vinci (2024, with Sarah Burns and David McMahon)WEB, Ken Burns,weblink Ken Burns, Ken Burns Media, LLC, April 11, 2020,
• The American Revolution (2025)WEB,weblink Ken Burns on 'Complicated Narrative' Of His Forthcoming Revolutionary War Project, Busting 1776 Myths And Looking Afresh At George Washington, Hayes, Dade, Deadline Hollywood, 2023-12-15,
• Henry David Thoreau (2025/2026, as Executive Producer)WEB, Henry David Thoreau,weblink 2022-10-01, Ken Burns, en-US,
• Emancipation to Exodus (2027, with David McMahon, Sarah Burns, and Erika Dilday)NEWS, Marchese, David, 2021-03-15, Ken Burns Still Has Faith in a Shared American Story, en-US, The New York Times,weblink 2022-10-01, 0362-4331, WEB, Emancipation to Exodus,weblink 2023-10-19, Ken Burns, en-US,
• LBJ & the Great Society (2028, with Lynn Novick and Sarah Botstein)WEB, LBJ & the Great Society,weblink 2023-10-19, Ken Burns, en-US,

Short films

These three short films are collected and distributed together as Seeing, Searching, Being: William Segal.

• William Segal (1992)NEWS,weblink PBS to Show Ken Burns Films on William Segal, Jensen, Elizabeth, July 29, 2010, The New York Times, December 5, 2019, en-US, 0362-4331,
• Vezelay (1996)WEB,weblink The Accidental Historian: Ken Burns Mines America's Past, December 10, 2002, International Documentary Association, en, December 5, 2019,
• In the Marketplace (2000)

As an executive producer

• The West (1996) (directed by Stephen Ives)WEB,weblink PBS – THE WEST – Stephen Ives, www.pbs.org, 2019-12-05,
• (Cancer (film)|Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies) (2015) (directed by Barak Goodman)
• Walden (short, 2017) (directed by Erik Ewers and Christopher Loren Ewers)WEB, Walden,weblink ewers brothers production, February 26, 2020, February 26, 2020,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20200226120959weblink">weblink dead,
• Country Music: Live at the Ryman, a Concert Celebrating the Film by Ken Burns (2019) (directed by Don Carr)WEB, Country Music: Live at the Ryman DVD,weblink Shop.PBS.org, Public Broadcasting Service, February 26, 2020, February 26, 2020,weblink dead,
• College Behind Bars (2019) (directed by Lynn Novick)WEB,weblink College Behind Bars &124; PBS, www.pbs.org,
• East Lake Meadows: A Public Housing Story (2020) (directed by Sarah Burns and David McMahon)WEB, East Lake Meadows,weblink Ken Burns, Ken Burns Media, LLC, February 26, 2020,
• (The Gene: An Intimate History) (2020) (directed by Chris Durrance and Jack Youngelson)NEWS, Morgan, Jillian, PBS sets April air date for Ken Burns documentary on human genetics,weblink February 26, 2020, Realscreen, Brunico Communications Ltd., February 19, 2020,
• Hiding in Plain Sight: Youth Mental Illness (2022) (directed by Erik Ewers and Christopher Loren Ewers)WEB, Hiding in Plain Sight,weblink Ken Burns, Ken Burns Media, LLC, September 21, 2022,

As an actor

{{BLP unreferenced section|date=October 2023}}

• Gettysburg (film; 1993) – Hancock's staff officerWEB,weblink Part I: My experience on set of the movie "Gettysburg", October 17, 2012, National Museum of American History, en, December 5, 2019,
• Clifford's Puppy Days – Season 1, episode 24a ("Lights, Camera, Action"; 2005) – self
• The Simpsons:
  • Season 14, episode 10 ("Pray Anything"; 2003) - self/ did not voiced
  • Season 22, episode 22 ("The Ned-liest Catch"; 2012) - self/ voiced
  • Season 24, episode 1 ("Moonshine River"; 2012) – self/ voiced
  • Season 30, episode 22 ("Woo-Hoo Dunnit?"; 2019) – self/ voiced
  • Season 35, episode 4 ("Thirst Trap: A Corporate Love Story"; 2023) - self/ voiced
• The Mindy Project – Season 3, episode 11 ("Christmas"; 2014) – self/ voiced
• Difficult People – Season 2, episode 4 ("Blade Stallion"; 2016) – self/ voiced

Notes

{{Notelist}}

References

{{Reflist|30em}}

External links

{{commons}}

• {{Allmovie name|83608}}
• {{IMDb name|122741}}
• Ken Burns on PBS
• Ken Burns bibliography

{{Ken Burns|state=expanded}}{{Navboxes| title = Awards for Ken Burns| list ={{EmmyAward NonfictionProgrammingWriting}}{{Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album 1990s}}{{TCA Career Achievement Award}}{{2022 Television Hall of Fame}}}}{{Authority control}}