23 Aug Telluride Museum: An Evening with Ken Burns
The Telluride Historical Museum presents “An Evening with Ken Burns,” which includes a screening of a segment from his “The Civil War” series. Audience Q & A. The event takes place Sunday, August 30, 6 p..m. at the Palm Theatre. Tickets are $25 for non-members; $20 for members; $5 for students and active military. The screening is part of a fundraising weekend for the Museum which also includes “Feasting on History,” Saturday, August 29, 6:30 – 10 p.m., La Piazza del Villagio Ristorante, Mountain Village. Event features Flint Whitlock. (See related story and interview.) Museum Lovers $275; Museum Friend, $200 and includes admission to the Ken Burns event. Tickets and info for all here or call 970-728-3344, x6.
“(Ken) Burns is not only the greatest documentarian of the day, but also the most influential filmmaker period. That includes feature filmmakers like George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. I say that because Burns not only turned millions of persons onto history with his films, he showed us a new way of looking at our collective past and ourselves,” The Baltimore Sun
Award-winning documentary director and producer Ken Burns is an honorary homie. The iconic filmmaker has a 20+year relationship with Telluride, which he is known to describe shamelessly as “my lover.”
Since the Academy Award-nominated “Brooklyn Bridge” (1981), Ken Burns went on to direct and produce some of the most acclaimed historical documentaries ever made, recounting the histories of jazz, baseball, Prohibition, America’s national parks, the decade-long calamity known as “The Dust Bowl” and the Civil War. Other projects include the Gettsyburg Address, Jackie Robinson, the Vietnam Wa,r and the history of country music.
Many of those celebrated documentaries premiered at the Telluride Film Festival, which Ken has described as “the best festival on the planet” and where he now serves on the board.
Examples include ”Huey Long,” 1985; “The Civil War,” 1990; “Baseball:The Tenth Inning,” 1994; “Frank Lloyd Wright,” 1998; “Jazz,” 2001; “Horatio’s Drive: America’s First Road Trip,” 2003;”The War,” 2007; “The Central Park Five,” 2013.
Two of Ken’s films screened at Telluride’s other major film-centric event: Mountainfilm in Telluride: “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea,” 2009, and “The Dust Bowl,” 2013.
Ken Burns has developed a global reputation for those in-depth meditations on Americana, projects on which he often wears many hats: writer, cinematographer, editor and music director in addition to producing and directing.
Find out why historians say more Americans get their history lessons from Ken’s films than from any other source when you attend the upcoming “An Evening with Ken Burns,” the weekend prior to the opening of the 42nd annual Telluride Film Festival, again, Sunday, August 30, 6 p.m., Palm Theatre. Honoring the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, the screening focuses on Episode Five: “The Universe of Battle – 1863 from “The Civil War.”
Originally released in 1990, ‘The Civil War” received 40 major film and TV awards. In September, the film will be remastered and re-released in honor of its 25th anniversary.
Between After the screening, the Museum hosts an audience Q&A, as well as a book- and DVD- signing in conjunction with Between the Covers Bookstore.
“We are extremely excited Ken Burns will be continuing the tradition started last year,” commented Kiernan Lannon, executive director, Telluride Historical Museum. “His support of the Telluride Historical Museum and this event are a testament to his commitment to the people of Telluride and his passion for history. We are also especially thrilled to be showing ‘The Civil War’ segment during this important anniversary year, both for the historical event and the film.”
More about Episode Five: The Universe of Battle (1863):
The episode opens with a dramatic account of the turning point of war: the Battle of Gettysburg, the greatest ever fought in the Western Hemisphere. For three days 150,000 men will fight to the death in the Pennsylvania countryside, culminating in Pickett’s legendary charge. This extended episode then goes on to chronicle the fall of Vicksburg, the New York draft riots, the first use of black troops, and the western battles at Chickamauga, Georgia and Chattanooga, Tennessee. The episode closes with the dedication of a new Union cemetery at Gettysburg in November, where Abraham Lincoln struggles to put into words what is happening to his people.
Below is Ken Burns talking about “The Civil War” series:
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