Ken Burns – News Stories About Ken Burns - Page 1

Ken Burns Shows
the Revolution Was
No Storybook Fight

OPINION

Nov 12, 2025 2:25 PM CST

Ken Burns Shows the Revolution Was No Storybook Fight

George Will praises the PBS miniseries

(Newser) - Ken Burns' new documentary, The American Revolution, is poised to reshape how viewers see the nation's founding conflict, writes George Will in a column for the Washington Post . Its six two-hour episodes, launching Sunday on PBS, present a "bewildering, sometimes dismaying, but ultimately exhilarating" take on the war,...

Ken Burns: Current Era
Comparable to Civil War

Sep 21, 2021 3:34 AM CDT

Ken Burns: Current Era Comparable to Civil War

Historian says this is America's 4th great crisis

(Newser) - If you feel like Americans are living through a historically bad period of time in the country, historian Ken Burns says you're right. "It’s really serious," the documentary filmmaker said on the SmartLess podcast, per Mediaite . He said the current era is "equal to" the...

Ken Burns' Latest Subject: Ernest Hemingway

Ken Burns Film Takes
New Look at Hemingway

Apr 4, 2021 5:00 PM CDT

Ken Burns Film Takes New Look at Hemingway

Three-part documentary on PBS begins on Monday

(Newser) - A new Ken Burns documentary on Ernest Hemingway—powered by vast but little-known archives kept at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston—is shedding new light on the acclaimed novelist, per the AP . Hemingway, premiering on PBS on three consecutive nights starting April 5, takes a...

BIPOC Filmmakers Have a
Problem With PBS, Ken Burns

Mar 31, 2021 10:10 AM CDT

BIPOC Filmmakers Have a Problem With PBS, Ken Burns

Exclusive partnership comes at the expense of diversity, they argue

(Newser) - Almost 140 filmmakers, including some who work with PBS, have signed a letter calling out the public broadcaster for a "systemic failure to fulfill [its] mandate for a diversity of voices." The letter , implying an overemphasis on white creators, notes Ken Burns, a white man, has created about...

Ken Burns Has a
Big Problem With
The Last Dance

May 1, 2020 5:08 AM CDT

Ken Burns Has a Big Problem With The Last Dance

'That's not the way you do good journalism'

(Newser) - Ken Burns hasn't seen any of ESPN's new 10-part documentary series on Michael Jordan —but he already knows he has a big problem with it. The Last Dance was made in partnership with Jump23, Jordan's production company, and Burns, one of America's leading documentary makers,...

Ken Burns'
Vietnam War Is
'Required Viewing'

TV REView

Sep 15, 2017 10:47 AM CDT

Ken Burns' Vietnam War Is 'Required Viewing'

Critic calls 18-hour series a 'masterpiece'

(Newser) - A decade in the making, Ken Burns and Lynn Novick's documentary series, The Vietnam War, premieres on PBS Sunday, but it's already gaining quite the reputation among critics. The 18-hour documentary, told in 10 episodes, digs deep into the conflict, meshing first-person interviews with historical footage. Then it...

Ken Burns' 'Prohibition' a Slow But Fascinating PBS Documentary: Reviewers

Ken Burns' Prohibition
a Long, Tall Drink

TV Review

Oct 1, 2011 5:12 PM CDT

Ken Burns' Prohibition a Long, Tall Drink

'A Nation of Drunkards' is the best episode: reviewers

(Newser) - Ken Burns' latest mega-documentary, Prohibition, starts a three-night run tomorrow on PBS. Reviewers are praising the 5 1/2-hour survey of America's war on booze, but warn that it's a bit slow and may reveal its best stuff in the first episode:

"It's a great subject with

...

Civil War's Lessons Still
Relevant 150 Years Later

ken burns

Apr 12, 2011 12:36 PM CDT

Civil War's Lessons Still Relevant 150 Years Later

Failure to compromise nearly destroyed the nation: Ken Burns

(Newser) - Today marks the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War, and Ken Burns thinks modern America is still learning its lessons. We like to boast of a post-racial world, for instance, but "we are continually brought up short by the old code words and disguised prejudice of...

Ken Burns
Turns Camera
Next to Vietnam

Mar 29, 2011 6:22 AM CDT

Ken Burns Turns Camera Next to Vietnam

10- to 12-hour documentary will air in 2016

(Newser) - Ken Burns' next project will wade into the quagmire known as America's "war of lost illusions:" Vietnam. PBS announced the project, already in production, yesterday, reports Time, and expects to air it in 2016. Burns mentioned a Vietnam project in 2007 when promoting The War, but said he...

Burns' War Epic Starts Tomorrow

Sep 22, 2007 4:00 PM CDT

Burns' War Epic Starts Tomorrow

His latest PBS doc pays tribute to 'generic' US soldiers, including his own father

(Newser) - After 7 years and $13 million, Ken Burns' historical documentary The War will start airing tomorrow on PBS. The film centers on people rather than politics or weaponry, the Seattle Times reports: Celebrities and guns can "distract you from an experience of war, of what it was like to...

Battle Brews Over Burns' 'War'

Aug 26, 2007 6:47 PM CDT

Battle Brews Over Burns' 'War'

PBS stations unsure if airing doc's profanity will net fines

(Newser) - Words that start with “f-” and “s-” or end with “-hole” could spark fighting over a documentary that’s titled, appropriately, “The War.” PBS has a version of Ken Burns’ new film with expletives removed, but some stations want to show the real thing—even...