Documentary Filmmaker Ken Burns to Deliver Bryan Series Lecture Nov. 6
Ken Burns, whose documentary films have explored the broad panorama of America, will present a Bryan Series lecture Nov. 6 as part of a fall emphasis on "Arts and the Human Experience."
The lecture, entitled "American Trilogy," is at 8 p.m. in Dana Auditorium and is open to the public at no charge. Seating begins at 7 p.m.
Burns has been making documentary films for more than 20 years. Since the Academy Award-nominated Brooklyn Bridge in 1981, he has directed and produced some of the most acclaimed historical documentaries ever made, including The Civil War, Baseball and Jazz.
Stephen Ambrose, the historian, said of the filmmaker, "More Americans get their history from Ken Burns than any other source."
The Civil War was the highest-rated series in the history of American Public Television and attracted an audience of 40 million during its premiere in September 1990. The series has been honored with more than 40 major film and television awards, including two Emmy Awards and two Grammy Awards.
Baseball covered the history of the sport from the 1840s to the 1990s. Through the extensive use of archival photographs and newsreel footage, baseball as a mirror of the larger society was brought to the screen over nine nights during its premiere in September 1994. It became the most-watched series in PBS history.
Jazz explored in detail the culture, politics and dreams that gave birth to jazz music, and followed this most American of art forms from its origins in blues and ragtime through swing, bebop and fusion.
Burns' latest film, Horatio's Drive: America's First Road Trip, debuted Oct. 6 on PBS. The film explores the 1903 cross-country car trip by Dr. Horatio Nelson Jackson, which was accomplished in 63 days in a time before highways, gas stations and road maps existed.
Burns was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1953. He graduated from Hampshire College in Amherst, Mass., in 1975 and became one of the co-founders of Florentine Films. He resides in Walpole, N.H., and on Oct. 18 was married to Julie Deborah Brown, the founder of a nonprofit organization.
For more information about the Bryan Series, call 316-2308 or visit www.guilford.edu/bryanseries.
Nov. 6, 2003