Ken Burns A Victim Of Financial Crisis: Documentarian Loses GM Backing

DETROIT — General Motors Corp. is ending its 22-year support for Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Ken Burns.

GM spokeswoman Kelly Cusinato calls Burns "the gold standard of documentary filmmaking," but says the financial crisis "has forced GM to rein in such spending." A figure for GM's aid to Burns isn't known.

Burns has made a string of high-profile public TV documentaries, including "The Civil War," "Jazz" and "Baseball."

His last GM-backed project is "The National Parks: America's Best Idea," a six-part series airing this fall.

Burns' spokesman Dave Donovan tells The Detroit News that Burns is "incredibly grateful" for GM's support, calling it "an extraordinary contribution to public television."

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Information from: The Detroit News, http://www.detnews.com

Comments

[thebeerdoctor]

Considering how Burns' tome on Jazz turned out to be little more than what does Wynton Marsalis consider to be relevant of not, I think his documentary skills are vastly overrated. Burns' history on baseball was downright idiotic, according to the old timers who lived what the documentary film maker could only read about. Whatever his political bent does not change the fact that much of these much touted movies are very lousy indeed.

[joeneri]

How does a guy working for PBS make enough money to be ruined in the first place?

[Zia]

I wish I had the money to sponsor him! After seeing the documentary on CIvil War (3 days of 8 hour episodes in PBS), I went and bought a flag in 18 inches snow! That's how move I was! And I was a new immigrant to this nation!

[MsIrisMG]

Well, whenever you go to WGBH.org and buy a Ken Burns video, rather than taping it off the TV, you are helping defray the cost of production for not only the one you bought but the ones yet to come. Go and see what you can find! I once found the Civil War at a fantastic discount there, plus my 'GBH membership took even more off. So, if the list price is daunting, there are deals to be had, and the DVD extras are great. In the Baseball collection, each DVD is a baseball! And I bought "The War" from PBS.org for $50 - I couldn't believe it. I'd rather support PBS this way than donate to my local station during their pledge drive, because I can't stand them.

[joeneri]

I bought the Civil War DVD and I could swear there is one small segment about Lincoln from the the televised program that is missing from the DVD. It was a little piece of Shelby Foote commenting about how "highly intelligent" Lincoln was and how "everything he did, EVERY thing he did, was calculated for political effect." I remember the segment well because Burns had a rare photograph of Lincoln on while Shelby spoke: a 3/4 profile of Lincoln arching his eyebrow.

I guess you can tell how often I've watched the program. It's the best thing there ever was on television.

[isadora]

Nasty conservative elements are cheering the sad fortune of Ken Burns losing his funding. This behaviour indicates much more about these broad detractors than it does about this great documentarian. May he find funding and keep going and going and going like the energizer bunny.

[AN2009]

There's no doubt that Ken Burns will find funding elsewhere.

[BeeOplentee]

I really enjoyed his Civil War documentary. It brought life to old sepia photos of long dead people dressed in curious clothing. It was magnificent. Now, after reading many of the comments here it seems that my admiration was misplaced: Ken Burns turns out to be a third rate maker of tedious documentaries, according to them...

[TokyoCalling]

I'm sure the BBC will be more than happy to fund projects form someone as accomplished and talented as Ken Burns. Its a shame we can't even support our own art without the help of big business.

[Judyisacutie]

Too bad. His documentaries are among the best. I hope this doesn't slow him down one bit!

[Beowolf741]

As a Mac user, I remember Ken Burns saying how Apple wanted to use his Ken burns effect in iPhoto software as I recall. So they eventually arranged it so his wife could get free Macs for life for her work.
Perhaps they can now expand the relationship?

[FrancescaM]

The truth is, he never invented any of the things he took credit for ("truka" effects -including panning/scanning photographs- had been used in Europe since Mr.Burns was a toddler.) Apple giving him free computers was just a promotional stunt.

[MsIrisMG]

Wow. Bitter much?

[mickeytopogigio]

I expected the post's lead photo to be a .gif with a pull-back effect. I was disappointed that it was a still image.

[ADVOCATE4ZPG]

His WWII piece was sentimental and distorted: Unbeknowst to 99% of "Murkans," the Western Theatre was mostly won by the Russians by the time of June 6, 1944. Americans made FEW real sacrifices and suffered--often unnecessar­ily--relat­ively light casualties. The Russians ground the Wehrmacht to bones, blood, and scrap.....

The Eastern Theatre, quite different, except that all that island-hopping just piled up casualties­.....

Burns is third-rated historian but knows how to drive home a sentimental message...­.to a targetted audience..­....

[jrb35]

First of all, the film was about the AMERICAN experience during the war both on the homefront and on the battlefield. No one ever downplayed the scope of the fighting on the Eastern front or the tens of millions of casualties.

Americans made FEW sacrifices? Over 400,000 dead. So much for your point.

[bluesman49]

My father and grandfather fought in WWII. My dad in the Pacific and my grandfather flying bombers over Germany. Don't diminish their service and that of all the other brave Americans who fought in that terrible war. It was horrendous. It destroyed a generation or two of Americans, even though we won. The Russians suffered heavily so did all the Europeans, So did the Chinese. The Japanese suffered the severely with the a-bomb. Ken Burns is a genius. And your contribution to society is what?

[Judyisacutie]

My uncle stormed a French beach and fought in extremely violent fighting for days on end in that one battle. It is not a distortion to cover the American side of the war, and I view your comment as a slap in the face to those Americans who fought and their loved ones.

[isadora]

The nasty "conservative" Limbaugh repubs are at it again. I'd love to know what this character "advocates­." Clearly the ugly, distorted and (mainly) self-serving view of history that the other side has dished up for years to the horror of those who are not worshippers of good ole' white boys who want it their way. Ken Burns' comprehensive and detailed account of World War II with the theme of its effect on four American cities will stand as a masterpiece long after ZPG the chimp has been consigned to some lower-class anti-intellectual dustbin. I especially loved seeing the great American hero story of Sen. Daniel of Hawaii. When that Senator appeared in a photo with Oliver North I called it "A picture of one hero."

[the-lexicon]

If there's any criticism to level against Ken Burns, it's that he bites off great big chunks, that will be almost impossible to swallow.

"Jazz" for instance. An absolutely HUGE subject. Leviathan.

How could you cover that in 100 hours of documentary, never mind 11 or so?

You're stuck leaving SOMETHING out...and for some large swath of the audience, they will suffer that omission. It's also possible that he did himself a disservice, giving one person (Wynton Marsalis) too much weight in guiding the editorial content.

Those of us who PLAY jazz found the series good, informative, and full of holes.

But again, how could it possibly be otherwise? I can sit here and name 250 players that deserve to be in such a documentar­y...and that would get them about 2 minutes each. That wouldn't be a good documentary either...a­nd there would STILL be important players missing.

I think that's the only real sin of Ken Burns.

lexicon

[MsIrisMG]

Well, at least he did something to try to educate people, rather than sit on the sidelines and complain about what's not there. You want more? Pick up a camera and a microphone, make your own video and submit it to Independent Lens. Just because a subject is very large, doesn't mean it shouldn't be broached. The all-or-nothing approach is a childish one. There's more to every story Ken Burns has told, and it's not up to him to give you everything. But he's made what can be very boring subjects very palatable to a lot of people. Example, I couldn't care less about baseball as a sport, but I enjoyed his documentary on the subject, and I know that if I want to know more, I can research it furnther MYSELF. And watching a documentary full of dead and dying people is not my cup of tea, but THE WAR was utterly fascinating. Of course there's more to that story, and one man can't tell it all. But in this day and age, there's no excuse to not tell your own story or have the wherewithal to find out more. Talk to your local research librarian, and they'll be glad to help you.

[GuyFawkes]

Another moronic headline from HuffPost, and another reason why this site is giong downhill faster than a runaway train.

Huffpost has simply become the TMZ of political news: exploitation first.

[MagisterLudi]

The golden standard.

The Battle of Algiers
Night and Fog.
Triumph of the Will
The World at War Jeremy Isaacs
Man with a Movie Camera

Burns is but a pale imitator.

[GuyFawkes]

Those are all excellent films, but I can appreciate them AND Ken Burns. I recommend you check out Civil War and Mark Twain. These docs moved me to tears.

[MagisterLudi]

Yes I really liked Civil War. I think it is his finest work..
"The War," was disappointing, at best.

[Rashomon]

I'll agree with you on 'The World at War' and 'Night and Fog' but 'The Battle of Algiers' is a fiction film [even though it deals with real events] and 'Man With a Movie Camera' is an avant-garde drama/documentary that really belongs in it's own department.
'Triumph of the Will' is not worthy to make any list except straight up propoganda that doesn't really try to investigate or discuss anything.

If you are talking gold standards you need to include 'Shoah' and many of the films of Frederick Wiseman. And don't forget 'Sherman's March' by Ross McElwee.

[Slapmewhenitsover]

Ken Burns, while not a true victim of the financial meltdown, is a victim of moronic posters' wrath.

He lost his funding. That is all.

The sad issue here is that The HP again used ANOTHER outrageous headline that MISLED everyone.

Of course, this continuing stumbling and bumbling by the HP editor is no surprise.

The second travesty here is the number of so called readers who post but NEVER READ the articles. If they did read, they would just skip the imbecilic prose they vomit on this board.

Want more of the HP BS?

Just post a comment like this so they can start censoring you for believing in non-biased reporting.

[Badbowler]

He managed to make World War II boring. Maybe GM will save enough to put one more drink holder in their cars.