In “An Evening with Ken Burns in Conversation with CNN’s John Berman,” the famous documentary filmmaker discussed his career and his PBS series, The American Revolution.
America’s Filmmaker
According to Ken Burns, on any given school day, hundreds of classrooms across the United States screen his documentaries.
Since his Academy Award–nominated Brooklyn Bridge in 1981, Burns has directed and produced an extraordinary body of work that includes The Civil War, Baseball, Jazz, and most recently, The American Revolution.
On Feb. 3, Quick Center audience members from near and far gathered at the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts to hear from the legendary filmmaker himself as part of the Philip I. Eliasoph Open VISIONS Forum. The sold-out crowd—with overflow seating across campus and a long waiting list—was treated to an insightful exploration of Burns’ career, during which a short retrospective of his films and the trailer for The American Revolution were screened.
Philip I. Eliasoph, PhD, the namesake, founder, and director of the Eliasoph OVF lecture series, welcomed the crowd to campus before Burns was presented with an honorary degree by Fairfield University President Mark R. Nemec, PhD, with Provost Christine Siegel, PhD, and Chair of the University Board of Trustees Sheila Davidson ’83.
Who Are We?
In an onstage conversation with CNN’s John Berman and Dr. Eliasoph, Burns spoke about his creative process and offered opinions on all that he has learned and experienced over his career.
“If I were given 1,000 years to live, I’d never run out of ideas,” the filmmaker shared with a smile. He acknowledged that his films explore the same enduring questions: Who are we? What do past events tell us about who we are and where we are going?
From that foundation, Burns said, his goal is always to “tell a good and complicated story,” never tailoring a film to suit a particular moment. Referencing a saying often attributed to Mark Twain—that history may not repeat itself, but it often rhymes— Burns explained that no matter the current moment, there is almost always something in his work that “rhymes.”
“Every single film is a daily surprise,” he noted. “A daily humiliation—you’re always surprised by how much you don’t know.” That humility may have come as a shock to the audience, however, as over the course of the evening Burns recited the opening lines of Brooklyn Bridge and peppered his remarks with direct quotes from a wide range of historical figures.
