MUSEUM OF TELEVISION & RADIO UNIVERSITY SATELLITE SEMINAR SERIES, THE: KEN BURNS: THE HISTORICAL NARRATIVE ON TELEVISION {LONG VERSION}
Summary
One in this series of seminars conducted by The Museum of Television & Radio. In this seminar, moderated by Museum president Robert M. Batscha, the award-winning documentary filmmaker Ken Burns answers questions from various universities across the country via satellite on the topic of the historical narrative on television.
After Batscha offers opening remarks, a highlight tape of some of Burns's work is shown, including, among others: "Brooklyn Bridge" (1981), "Huey Long" (1985), "The Statue of Liberty" (1985), "The Congress" (1988), "The Civil War" (1990), and "Baseball" (1994). After the highlight tape, Burns discusses the following topics, among others: how his distinctive narrative style came about; the process of choosing a particular subject to work on; how much knowledge he assumes the viewing public has about certain topics; the tremendous amount of research that goes into a film and the time it takes to complete a film; whether historians have accepted his work; how he chooses the voices to narrate his documentaries; whether there are subjects that are too broad to handle; and what documentary filmmakers he admires. Highlights of the topics covered during the question-and-answer session include, among others: from Old Dominion University, what the biggest challenges were in doing the film about Thomas Jefferson; from the University of Georgia, whether he would consider doing a documentary on other topics besides American history; from the University of Wisconsin, would he consider working with network television instead of strictly staying with public television; from Syracuse University, what influences his musical selections in films; from SUNY Furdonia, how he goes about collecting the archival photographs and footage; from St. Josephs College, what his next project -- about jazz music -- will be like; from Washington State University, how to acquire the rights for the thousands of photographs and reels of footage he uses; from Syracuse University, how much time of the year he spends on the road conducting research; and from the University of Georgia, what advice would he give to aspiring documentary makers.
Details
- NETWORK: Paley
- DATE: November 19, 1996 7:30 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 1:24:14
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T:46398
- GENRE: Seminars
- SUBJECT HEADING: N/A
- SERIES RUN: N/A
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Robert M. Batscha … Moderator
- Ken Burns … Guest
- Thomas Jefferson