Ken Burns

Ken’s preference. This is a less formal, Inside-the-Actors-Studio type of event.  Ken responds to questions from a moderator on all his films (or film-specific) and issues in history and contemporary American culture.  Audience Q&A to conclude if requested.

This powerful, moving speech digs deep into the history and meaning of country music: its greatest stars and the words and music that touch on universal human experiences. (Clip(s) optional.)

Burns tries to make sense of the most important and most consequential event in American History since World War II. Here competing viewpoints and perspectives are balanced to give us a chance to finally come to terms with this important conflict. (Clip(s) optional.)

A detailed and intimate look at three hugely influential, but deeply flawed and wounded people, who are Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt—their lives, but also their times. (Clip(s) optional.)

Burns discusses the great gift of our national parks.  Here both “the immensity and the intimacy of time” merge, as we appreciate what the parks have added to our collective and individual spirit.  (Begins with 13-minute clip – intro to the film.)

Ken Burns reminds the audience of the timeless lessons of history, and the enduring greatness and importance of the United States in the course of human events.  Incorporating The Civil War, Baseball and Jazz, Burns engages and celebrates what we share in common.  (No clip.)

Drawing on some of Lincoln’s most stirring words as inspiration, this speech engages the paradox of war by following the powerful themes in two of Ken Burns’s best known works–“The Civil War”, his epic retelling of the most important event in American history, and “The War”, his intensely moving story of WWII told through the experiences of so-called ordinary people from four geographically distributed American towns.  (Begins with Norah Jones 5-minute “American Anthem” montage clip from the film.)

The Civil War continues to be the most important event in American history.  In this eloquent address, Burns paints both an intimate and bird’s-eye view of the searing events of the years 1861 through 1865 and the war’s profound relevance to us today.  (Clip optional: 12-minute intro to the film.)