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Ken Burns Biography

Ken Burns, Director
Attr: Jonathunder, GFDL 1.2
Born asKenneth Lauren Burns
Occup.Director
FromUSA
BornJuly 29, 1953
Brooklyn, New York, USA
Age70 years
Ken Burns, born upon July 29, 1953, in Brooklyn, New York, is an extremely well-known American documentary filmmaker known for his signature style that includes historical video, pictures, and meetings to develop appealing as well as engaging narratives. Burns has actually been the recipient of countless awards and also honors for his work, including several Emmy Awards and two Academy Honor elections.

Increased in Newark, Delaware, Ken's passion for history and narration was fired up at an early age. His papa, Robert Burns, was a cultural anthropologist, while his mom, Lyla Smith, was a biotechnician. Regrettably, his mom died when he was just 11 years of ages, leaving an indelible mark on his future job. Burns has commonly credited his mommy's health problem as well as subsequent death with his drive to make docudramas that check out motifs of love, loss, and also the human experience.

Burns researched at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in film research studies and also layout in 1975. It was during this time that he satisfied and partnered with cinematographer Pal Squires, marking the beginning of a lifelong creative partnership.

Ken Burns' career removed in 1981 with the release of his very first docudrama, "Brooklyn Bridge". The movie, which obtained an Academy Award election for Best Documentary, presented audiences to Burns' distinctive narration method. Utilizing historical video, authentic photographs, and narration-based narration, the docudrama told the tale of the engineering wonder that is the Brooklyn Bridge, spotlighting individuals as well as occasions bordering its building.

In 1984, Burns founded his production company, Florentine Movies, together with partners Squires, Roger Sherman, and Larry Hott. Adopting a joint technique to filmmaking, the team started generating a collection of historic docudramas that would redefine the genre.

Ken Burns' outbreak success can be found in 1990 with his nine-part docudrama series, "The Civil War". The collection mesmerized numerous customers, making it among the highest-rated programs in PBS history. The groundbreaking collection established the requirement for future historic docudramas as well as strengthened Burns' setting as one of America's a lot of prominent docudrama filmmakers.

Over the taking place years, Burns continued to develop critically acclaimed documentaries, including "Baseball" (1994), "The West" (1996), "Jazz" (2001), "The War" (2007), "The National Parks: America's Finest Suggestion" (2009), "Prohibition" (2011), "The Roosevelts: An Intimate History" (2014), "The Vietnam War" (2017), as well as "Country Music" (2019). Throughout his prolific job, Burns has actually regularly shown a dedication to crafting narratives that illuminate the intricacies and shared experiences of American history.

Ken has been bestowed many awards, consisting of the distinguished National Humanities Medal, which existed to him by Head Of State George W. Shrub in 2000. His cooperations with fellow filmmakers, composers, and also historians, in addition to his genuine interest for exploring the human experience, guarantees ongoing widespread appreciation for his work. Today, Ken Burns remains at the forefront of documentary filmmaking, utilizing his unique creativity to create lasting storytelling traditions.

Our collection contains 33 quotes who is written / told by Ken.

Related authors: Roger Sherman (Politician), Robert Burns (Poet), Lawrence Taylor (Athlete), Shelby Foote (Author)

Source / external links:

33 Famous quotes by Ken Burns

Small: I record all of my music with authentic instruments in a studio before we start editing, doing many, ma
"I record all of my music with authentic instruments in a studio before we start editing, doing many, many versions. The music shapes the film as we edit so it has an organic relationship to the content"
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Small: I enjoy total creative control right now. Nobody tells me to make it longer, shorter, better, sexier, m
"I enjoy total creative control right now. Nobody tells me to make it longer, shorter, better, sexier, more violent, whatever"
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Small: Were having a hard time understanding where jazz is going. What happened to jazz?
"We're having a hard time understanding where jazz is going. What happened to jazz?"
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Small: The way I work, the interview never becomes larger than the person being interviewed
"The way I work, the interview never becomes larger than the person being interviewed"
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Small: I think my expectations for myself are much more severe and much more direct. You cant work on a film f
"I think my expectations for myself are much more severe and much more direct. You can't work on a film for six years without being your own toughest critic. So you can't really be distracted by the expectations based on your previous performance"
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Small: In most films music is brought in at the end, after the picture is more or less locked, to amplify the
"In most films music is brought in at the end, after the picture is more or less locked, to amplify the emotions the filmmaker wants you to feel"
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Small: I have made all my films for my children with the exception of my first film because my oldest daughter
"I have made all my films for my children with the exception of my first film because my oldest daughter wasn't born when I was making the film about the Brooklyn Bridge"
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Small: I have made a film about jazz that tries to look through jazz to see what it tells us about who we are
"I have made a film about jazz that tries to look through jazz to see what it tells us about who we are as a people. I think that jazz is a spectacularly accurate model of democracy and a kind of look into our redemptive future possibilities"
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Small: I dont use composers. I research music the way I research the photographs or the facts in my scripts
"I don't use composers. I research music the way I research the photographs or the facts in my scripts"
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Small: A jazz beat is a dynamic changing rhythm
"A jazz beat is a dynamic changing rhythm"
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Small: One of the things I really like about Fords films is how there is always a focus on the way characters
"One of the things I really like about Ford's films is how there is always a focus on the way characters live, and not just the male heroes"
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Small: I grew up certain for a while that I was going to be an anthropologist, until film turned my head
"I grew up certain for a while that I was going to be an anthropologist, until film turned my head"
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Small: I can understand why some of these drummers and bass players become cult figures with all of their equi
"I can understand why some of these drummers and bass players become cult figures with all of their equipment and the incredible amount of technique they have. But there's very little that I think satisfies you intellectually or emotionally"
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Small: I began to feel that the drama of the truth that is in the moment and in the past is richer and more in
"I began to feel that the drama of the truth that is in the moment and in the past is richer and more interesting than the drama of Hollywood movies. So I began looking at documentary films"
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Small: I am passionately interested in understanding how my country works. And if you want to know about this
"I am passionately interested in understanding how my country works. And if you want to know about this thing called the United States of America you have to know about the Civil War"
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Small: You dont work on something for six years and be blind to the myriad of other approaches
"You don't work on something for six years and be blind to the myriad of other approaches"
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Small: The stories from 1975 on are not finished and there is no resolve. I could spend 50 hours on the last 2
"The stories from 1975 on are not finished and there is no resolve. I could spend 50 hours on the last 25 years of jazz and still not do it justice"
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Small: Like a layer on a pearl, you cant specifically identify the irritant, the moment of the irritant, but a
"Like a layer on a pearl, you can't specifically identify the irritant, the moment of the irritant, but at the end of the day, you know you have a pearl"
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Small: I treat the photograph as a work of great complexity in which you can find drama. Add to that a careful
"I treat the photograph as a work of great complexity in which you can find drama. Add to that a careful composition of landscapes, live photography, the right music and interviews with people, and it becomes a style"
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Small: History is malleable. A new cache of diaries can shed new light, and archeological evidence can challen
"History is malleable. A new cache of diaries can shed new light, and archeological evidence can challenge our popular assumptions"
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Small: Good history is a question of survival. Without any past, we will deprive ourselves of the defining imp
"Good history is a question of survival. Without any past, we will deprive ourselves of the defining impression of our being"
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Small: The flame is not out, but it is flickering
"The flame is not out, but it is flickering"
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Small: I think we too often make choices based on the safety of cynicism, and what were lead to is a life not
"I think we too often make choices based on the safety of cynicism, and what we're lead to is a life not fully lived. Cynicism is fear, and it's worse than fear - it's active disengagement"
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Small: I think the problem with a lot of the fusion music is that its extremely predictable, its a rock rhythm
"I think the problem with a lot of the fusion music is that it's extremely predictable, it's a rock rhythm and the solos all play the same stuff and they play it over and over again and there's a certain musical virtuosity involved in it"
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Small: I subscribe to William Faulkners view that history is not just about what we were before but who we are
"I subscribe to William Faulkner's' view that history is not just about what we were before but who we are now"
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Small: Historys just been made for sale to an inside deal
"History's just been made for sale to an inside deal"
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Small: By its very nature, no one person can ever be the center of jazz
"By its very nature, no one person can ever be the center of jazz"
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Small: The genius of our country is improvisation, and jazz reflects that. Its our great contribution to the a
"The genius of our country is improvisation, and jazz reflects that. It's our great contribution to the arts"
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Small: Jazz is a very accurate, curiously accurate accompaniment to 20th century America
"Jazz is a very accurate, curiously accurate accompaniment to 20th century America"
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Small: I read cover to cover every jazz publication that I could and in the New York Times, every single day r
"I read cover to cover every jazz publication that I could and in the New York Times, every single day reading their jazz reviews even though I didn't put them in the films. I wanted to know what is going on"
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Small: I never, ever want to apologize for a film. If its bad Ill say its my fault. And thats what I can say s
"I never, ever want to apologize for a film. If it's bad I'll say it's my fault. And that's what I can say so far in all the films that I've done, that if you don't like it, it's entirely my fault"
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Small: Louis Armstrong is quite simply the most important person in American music. He is to 20th century musi
"Louis Armstrong is quite simply the most important person in American music. He is to 20th century music (I did not say jazz) what Einstein is to physics"
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Small: In a sense Ive made the same film over and over again. In all of them Ive asked, Who are we as American
"In a sense I've made the same film over and over again. In all of them I've asked, 'Who are we as Americans?"
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