WME Speaker

Praise & Recognition

I cannot thank each of you enough for your help. With this being my first "celebrity" experience, you all made it very easy and I truly appreciate all you did.

Rhinebeck Area Chamber of Commerce

WME could not have been more efficient, more understanding, nor better prepared. The event turned out to be spectacular and due in large measure to their professionalism and diligence. We could not have been more pleased!

Association for Financial Professionals

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Ken Burns
Acclaimed Documentary Filmmaker

Ken Burns has directed and produced some of the most acclaimed historical documentaries ever made. The Baltimore Sun said, "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."

His landmark series The Civil War was the highest rated series in the history of American Public Television and attracted an audience of 40 million during its premiere in September 1990. Read More

In addition to directing The Civil War, Burns also served as producer, co-writer, chief cinematographer, music director and executive producer. Honored with more than forty major film and television awards, The New York Times called The Civil War a masterpiece and Tom Shales of The Washington Post said, "This is not just good television, nor even just great television. This is heroic television." The columnist George Will said, "If better use has ever been made of television, I have not seen it and do not expect to see better until Ken Burns turns his prodigious talents to his next project."

Ken Burns was the director, producer, co-writer, chief cinematographer, music director and executive producer of the Public Television series Baseball. Four and a half years in the making and eighteen and a half hours in length, this film covers the history of baseball from the 1840s to the present. It became the most watched series in PBS history, attracting more than 45 million viewers.

In the fall of 2009, PBS broadcast the Emmy Award-winning The National Parks: America's Best Idea. Directed and co-produced by Burns, the six-part series focuses on the ideas and individuals that helped propel the parks into existence. Filmed over the course of more than six years at some of nature's most spectacular locales – from Acadia to Yosemite, Yellowstone to the Grand Canyon, the Everglades of Florida to the Gates of the Arctic in Alaska – the heart of the story is nonetheless a story of people from every conceivable background – rich and poor; famous and unknown; soldiers and scientists; natives and newcomers; idealists, artists and entrepreneurs; people who were willing to devote themselves to saving some precious portion of the land they loved, and in doing so reminded their fellow citizens of the full meaning of democracy.

From jazz, the Shakers, and the Statue of Liberty, to Huey Long, the Brooklyn Bridge, Congress and the first African American heavyweight fighter—Burns's subjects cover a diverse yet uniquely American way of life.
His upcoming projects include a history of Prohibition, the Dust Bowl, the Roosevelts, the Vietnam War and the Central Park Jogger case.

Full Biography (

PDF)

Speaking Topics

Race in America

For more than 30 years, Burns has been dealing with the theme of race in his uniquely American documentaries. Now, in the age of Obama, he looks back from the perspective of monumental change in the country to reflect where we’ve been. With several clips from earlier films.

The National Parks: A Treasure House of Nature’s Superlatives

Burns discusses the great gift of our national parks. Here both “the immensity and the intimacy of time” merge, as we appreciate what the parks have added to our collective and individual spirit. This presentation includes a 13-minute clip of Burns' film The National Parks: America’s Best Idea.

Sharing the American Experience

Ken Burns reminds the audience of the timeless lessons of history, and the enduring greatness and importance of the United States in the course of human events. Incorporating The Civil War, Baseball and Jazz, Burns engages and celebrates what we share in common. No clips.

No Ordinary Lives

Drawing on some of Lincoln's most stirring words as inspiration, this speech engages the paradox of war by following the powerful themes in two of Ken Burns's best known works--"The Civil War", his epic retelling of the most important event in American history, and "The War", his intensely moving story of WWII told through the experiences of so-called ordinary people from four geographically distributed American towns. Opens with Norah Jones 5-minute “American Anthem” clip from The War.

Relevant Links

PBS Website

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VIDEO: Maverick Speakers Series: Ken Burns

VIDEO: Ken Burns - Video Tribute - News & Documentary Emmy Awards

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Review: Ken Burns' 'The Dust Bowl' a timely, exceptional endeavor

Los Angeles Times

Ken Burns, public television's signature chronicler of great American moments, pastimes and inventions, has turned his Ken Burns Effect loose upon "The Dust Bowl." One would say it was almost inevitable that two things so huge were bound to meet.

Q&A: Filmmaker Ken Burns on the Danger and Wonder of National Parks

Time

Last week, three young hikers were fatally swept over a Yosemite waterfall after ignoring posted warnings, and national parks were propelled into the news. To get his views on how these lands have shaped the American psyche and what we should learn from the accident, TIME spoke to documentarian Ken Burns (whose allegiance is made clear in his 2009 film, National Parks: America's Best Idea).

Ken Burns, Steve Martin and the cosmos coming to PBS' fall lineup