We spoke with Ken Burns via telephone at the offices of his New Hampshire-based Florentine Films production company. Since the public television debut of his film, Brooklyn Bridge, in 1981, Ken Burns has been PBS' most revered documentary film maker. The mp3 podcast conversation can be downloaded here and can be enjoyed on your personal computer or loaded onto your personal mp3 player for on-the-go listening.
With a passion for history, Burns has used archival photographs, rare footage and readings of historic documents to create more than a dozen stirring films about America's past. Of those films, three have been epic masterpieces, immersing viewers into the stories of The Civil War, Baseball and Jazz.
This September, Burns' next multi-part film, The War, will premiere on WPT. Through the eyes of the citizens of four American cities, the film will delve into World War II in a way that no previous film has. In addition to his own film, Burns is pushing other public television stations around the country to tell their own local stories of the war, using WPT's award-winning Wisconsin World War II Stories as a model.
In our conversation, Burns talked about how he became interested in documentary films, why public broadcasting is so important and how he is answering some early criticisms that are already being raised about The War.
Burns will be visiting Stevens Point on the evening of April 19 to present a special lecture about his films and The War. For more information about the event, visit wpt.org. Tickets are available at the UW-Stevens Point box office by calling 1-800-838-3378.
