Ken Burns: One Nation, Many Stories
2024 · Movie
Ken Burns
1953-07-29
•
Brooklyn, New York, USA
Writers: , The Civil War
Ken Burns (born 1953) is a highly celebrated American documentarian who gradually amassed a considerable reputation and a devoted audience with a series of reassuringly traditional meditations on Americana. Burns' works are treasure troves of archival materials; he skillfully utilizes period music and footage, photographs, periodicals and ordinary people's correspondence, the latter often movingly read by seasoned professional actors in a deliberate attempt to get away from a "Great Man" approach to history. Like most non-fiction filmmakers, Burns wears many hats on his projects, often serving as writer, cinematographer, editor and music director in addition to producing and directing. He achieved his apotheosis with The Civil War (1990), a phenomenally popular 11-hour documentary that won two Emmys and broke all previous ratings records for public TV. The series' companion coffee table book--priced at a hefty $50--sold more than 700,000 copies. The audio version, narrated by Burns, was also a major best-seller. In the final accounting, "The Civil War" became the first documentary to gross over $100 million. Not surprisingly, it has become perennial fund-raising programming for public TV stations around the country. Burns arrived upon the scene with the Oscar-nominated Brooklyn Bridge (1981), a nostalgic chronicle of the construction of the fabled edifice. The film was more widely seen when rebroadcast on PBS the following year. Though Burns has made other nonfiction films for theatrical release, notably an acclaimed and ambiguous portrait of Depression-era Louisiana governor Huey Long (1985), PBS would prove to be his true home. He cast a probing eye on such American subjects as The Statue of Liberty (1985), The Congress (1988) (PBS), painter Thomas Hart Benton (1988) (PBS) and early radio with Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio (1991) (PBS). Burns returned to long-form documentary with his most ambitious project to date, an 18-hour history of Baseball (1994), which aired on PBS in the fall of 1994. He approached the national pastime as a template for understanding changes in modern American society. Ironically, this was the only baseball on the air at the time, as the players and owners were embroiled in a bitter strike.
Filmography
In the Know
2024 · TV Show
as Self
Spirit of Golf
2023 · Movie
as Self
The Unmaking of a College
2022 · Movie
as Self
Back on the Record with Bob Costas
2021 · TV Show
as Self
The Problem with Jon Stewart
2021 · TV Show
as Self
Ken Burns: Here & There
2020 · Movie
as Himself
Here For A Good Time
2020 · Movie
as Self
Very Ralph
2019 · Movie
as Self
No image
Henry Louis Gates Jr.: Uncovering America
2019 · Movie
as Self - Director and Producer
Firing Line with Margaret Hoover
2018 · TV Show
as Self
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
2015 · TV Show
as Self - Guest, Self
Difficult People
2015 · TV Show
as Ken Burns
No image
OETA's On the Record: Ken Burns
2014 · Movie
as Self
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
2014 · TV Show
as Self - Guest
Yosemite — A Gathering of Spirit
2013 · Movie
as Narrator (Voice)
Plimpton! Starring George Plimpton as Himself
2012 · Movie
as Self
Finding Your Roots
2012 · TV Show
as Self
The Mindy Project
2012 · TV Show
as Ken Burns
A Hall for Heroes: The Inaugural Hall of Fame Induction of 1939
2010 · Movie
MLB: Baseball's Seasons
2009 · TV Show
as Self - Filmmaker
Craft in America
2007 · TV Show
as Himself
Wordplay
2006 · Movie
as Self
The Colbert Report
2005 · TV Show
as Self, Self (uncredited)
No image
The Tim McCarver Show
2005 · TV Show
No image
The Tony Danza Show
2004 · TV Show
as Self
Chuck Jones: Extremes and In-Betweens - A Life in Animation
2000 · Movie
as Self
The View
1997 · TV Show
as Self
The Daily Show
1996 · TV Show
as Self
Late Night with Conan O'Brien
1993 · TV Show
as Self - Guest
Late Show with David Letterman
1993 · TV Show
as Self - Guest
The Simpsons
1989 · TV Show
as Ken Burns (voice)
This Week
1981 · TV Show
CNN Special Report
1980 · TV Show
as Self
60 Minutes
1968 · TV Show
as Self
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
1962 · TV Show
as Self
Face The Nation
1954 · TV Show
as Self
Today
1952 · TV Show
as Self
Crew Credits
Henry David Thoreau
2026 · Movie
Producer
Henry David Thoreau
2026 · TV Show
Director, Writer, Producer, Creator
The American Revolution
2025 · TV Show
Producer, Director, Creator
Leonardo da Vinci
2024 · TV Show
Director, Executive Producer, Creator
Homecoming
2023 · Movie
Executive Producer
The American Buffalo
2023 · TV Show
Director, Producer, Executive Producer
The U.S. and the Holocaust
2022 · TV Show
Producer, Director, Creator
Hiding in Plain Sight: Youth Mental Illness
2022 · TV Show
Executive Producer
Benjamin Franklin
2022 · TV Show
Director, Producer
Hemingway
2021 · TV Show
Director, Producer
Muhammad Ali
2021 · TV Show
Director, Executive Producer, Writer
De la poussière et des hommes
2021 · TV Show
Director
East Lake Meadows: A Public Housing Story
2020 · Movie
Producer, Executive Producer
The Gene: An Intimate History
2020 · TV Show
Producer
Country Music
2019 · TV Show
Executive Producer, Director
College Behind Bars
2019 · TV Show
Executive Producer
The Mayo Clinic
2018 · Movie
Director, Writer, Executive Producer
Walden
2017 · Movie
Executive Producer
The Vietnam War
2017 · TV Show
Producer, Director, Executive Producer
Defying the Nazis: The Sharps' War
2016 · Movie
Director, Executive Producer
Jackie Robinson
2016 · TV Show
Director
Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies
2015 · TV Show
Producer
The Address
2014 · Movie
Director
Interstellar
2014 · Movie
Thanks
The Roosevelts: An Intimate History
2014 · TV Show
Director, Writer, Creator
Yosemite — A Gathering of Spirit
2013 · Movie
Director, Executive Producer, Cinematography
After the Central Park Five
2013 · Movie
Director, Writer
The Central Park Five
2012 · Movie
Director, Writer, Producer
The Dust Bowl
2012 · TV Show
Director, Producer
Prohibition
2011 · TV Show
Executive Producer, Director, Producer, Creator
Seeing, Searching, Being: William Segal
2010 · Movie
Director
Baseball: The Tenth Inning
2010 · Movie
Writer, Director
Baseball: The Tenth Inning
2010 · TV Show
Director, Writer, Producer, Director of Photography, Executive Producer, Creator
The National Parks: America's Best Idea
2009 · TV Show
Producer, Director
The War
2007 · TV Show
Executive Producer, Director
Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson
2005 · TV Show
Director, Producer
Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson
2004 · Movie
Director
Horatio's Drive: America's First Road Trip
2003 · Movie
Director
Mark Twain
2002 · Movie
Director, Producer, Director of Photography
Mark Twain
2002 · TV Show
Director
Jazz
2001 · TV Show
Director, Producer
Not for Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Susan B. Anthony
1999 · TV Show
Director, Producer
Frank Lloyd Wright
1998 · TV Show
Director, Producer
Lewis & Clark - The Journey of the Corps of Discovery
1997 · TV Show
Director, Producer
Thomas Jefferson
1997 · TV Show
Director, Creator
The West
1996 · TV Show
Executive Producer
Baseball
1994 · TV Show
Director, Producer, Executive Producer, Writer, Director of Photography
Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio
1991 · Movie
Producer, Director, Executive Producer, Music Director, Director of Photography
Lindbergh
1990 · Movie
Producer
The Civil War
1990 · TV Show
Writer, Director, Executive Producer, Director of Photography
The Congress
1989 · Movie
Director
Thomas Hart Benton
1989 · Movie
Director, Producer
The Statue of Liberty
1985 · Movie
Director, Cinematography, Producer
Huey Long
1985 · Movie
Director, Producer
The Shakers: Hands to Work, Hearts to God
1984 · Movie
Director, Producer, Cinematography
Brooklyn Bridge
1981 · Movie
Director, Director of Photography, Cinematography
