I am Ken Burns, documentary filmmaker. Ask me anything.

I have no question, I'm just disappointed that your proof wasn't a gif that slowly zoomed into your face.

Yeah. If I wasn't such a luddite I would've done it. Good idea.

What did you think of the Community parody of your work?

Loved it and the dozens of other parodies over the years. Keeps you humble.

As an homage to Ken Burns I will read this thread by slowly scrolling down.

Great. I'll see your scrolling and turn this into a ten-part series.

Hi Ken! I loved "The Civil War" series so much. When I first saw it, I wanted my octogenarian grandfather to watch some of it with me. He actually knew some soldiers who had been in the war, and he said, "No thank you. It's just too painful." Does this reaction surprise you? Were there moments in this (or any other documentary you've made) that were simply too heartbreaking to show? Thanks for all your brilliant work.

It doesn't surprise me now that I've worked on films on the Second World War and Vietnam. There's something unique to war and the heightened experience of coming close to death that both repels and attracts us.

I have a deep interest in The Vietnam War, and have been hoping you'd do something on it someday. Is IMDb messing with me, or is there really a series in the works?

Yep. And we're more than six months into editing. It's a tiger by the tail. We've done nearly 100 interviews: with a dozens of Americans from every military profession, civilians, draft dodgers, gold-star mothers, etc. We've also had unique access to Vietnam and so we've got the perspective of both former North and South Vietnamese soldiers and civilians. And we're learning stuff that is turning the conventional wisdom about the war on its head.

Hey Ken. What made you want to tackle prohibition as a documentary and do you see parallels between that and the war on drugs today?

I tackled prohibition, because it seemed to resonate with very contemporary issues: single-issue political campaigns that metastasized with horrible unintended consequences, the demonization of recent immigrant groups, smear campaigns during presidential election cycles, and a whole group of people who feel like they have lost control of their country and want to take it back. Sound familiar? There are some parallels. But remember too that alcohol is a cultural phenomenon, and drugs are mostly subcultural. Legalization will bring its own unintended consequences.

The Jazz documentary got me interested in playing jazz. Thanks for all the hard work and making it happen!

That's great. You made my day! Who's your favorite jazz artist?

Mingus

Fabulous! One of the three best composers in jazz history with Duke Ellington and Thelonius Monk.

Thank you very much for this experience. Talk to you soon. -KB

Your jazz documentary was amazing! That is all, thank you.

The genius of America is improvisation. Thank you.

Hi Ken! Huge fan of all of your work, especially The War and Baseball. I have two questions. First, can we expect the 11th inning in the future? Second, what is the documentary that you are most proud of?

They'll be an 11th Inning, I guess, if the Cubs win the World Series. No, I hope to return to the subject every few years. Baseball is so revealing of us. Because I work with PBS, each film represents the best of me (and us, my co-workers). So, like my daughters, I'd be remiss if I had a favorite.

Of all your documentaries, who has been the most fascinating interviewee? (And why was it Buck O'Neil?)

Ha! No favorites. But Buck is close to being one. Our religious tradition suggests that man is made in God's image. But very little of our actions suggests this. Buck was the exception.

Have you ever entertained the idea of a doc on the American labor movement or unions?

Yes, many times. In fact, in the mail I get, labor is one of the top suggestions. However, I've felt that it would be less didactic to include this in the midst of other narratives, like our upcoming series The Roosevelts: An Intimate History, premiering September 14, 2014.

Hi Ken, I love your documentaries. How do you feel about the fact that your use of the technique was so popular, and contributed so much to its current ubiquity that it is known as the Ken Burns Effect? For those who don't know it's when the camera pans and zooms across a still image for dramatic effect. If you've ever watched Dateline, you've seen it.

Steve Jobs incorporated "The Ken Burns Effect" into iPhoto, and it's taken off. He asked my permission. I said yes. And six billion saved wedding, bar mitzvahs, vacation slideshows later, it's still going. But our attempt to "wake the dead" relies on a much more nuanced and complicated relationship to the photograph (the DNA of storytelling), as well as the soundtrack.

Has there ever been a topic you thought would make a good documentary but once you actually started working on it you realized it just wasn't going to work?

I feel so lucky that that has not happened yet. Knock on wood.

Hi, Ken! First of all, I want to thank you for your work documenting our National Parks and the people who made them possible. I have watched the series many times and it's second only to actually being in a park! My wife and I have visited 10 National Parks so far, and now have the joy of sharing the adventures with our two daughters.

So my question is, if you could be dropped right now into any spot in our National Parks, where would it be, and during what time of the year and/or day? And if you say Yosemite, you have to give a 2nd one!

Besides Yosemite... I still love standing at the rim of the Grand Canyon -- in any season. But as you note, it's not just the view. It's very important whose hand you're holding as you watch.

Ken: I'm a baseball, well...fan isn't the word. Loved Baseball. What about baseball's history surprised you the most?

The way it is a precise mirror of America.

Thanks for all your work, Ken! What's your favorite encounter you've had in real life with someone who was affected by watching your documentaries?

First of all, what I do isn't heart surgery. But I did have this moment in 1999, when I was walking with my daughter across Washington Square Park in New York. A man approached and mournfully said, "My brother's daughter died. My brother's daughter died." I instinctively stepped between him and my daughter. He saw my caution, and said, "SIDS. Crib death." I knew he was okay. I said, "I'm so sorry. I have daughters too." He said, "My brother and I were very close, and I didn't know what to do when my niece died. Then I remembered your Baseball series, and I went and got his old mitt and mine and went to his backdoor and knocked. He came out. We didn't say a word. We just played catch. And I wanted to thank you, ever since."

Mr. Burns, do your children share your love of history? How involved were/are you in their education?

I've been working for the last several years with my oldest daughter Sarah. We made, with her husband the filmmaker David McMahon, The Central Park Five. And right now, the three of us are making a two-part biography of Jackie Robinson. My second daughter Lilly is producing comedy for Comedy Central, most recently the excellent Broad City. My two other daughters are 9 and 3. Can we give them time?

Hi Ken! Your Civil War documentary was the highlight of my year in US history. Anyway, how and when did you discover the song Ashokan Farewell?

In 1983, one of our session musicians handed me an album, a real vinyl album, called Fiddle Fever. The fourth cut on the first side was the most beautiful Scotch-Irish lament I've ever heard, written by a Jewish boy from the Bronx named Jay Ungar. I haven't heard a better tune.

Hey Ken, thanks for the AMA! Really a fan of Baseball.

Who do you think is the best player in baseball right now?

Also, when can we expect the 11th Inning?

Thanks a lot!

Mike Trout, I think. I hope we'll do an 11th Inning in the next few years.

Just how crucial do you believe Shelby Foote was to your film?

Central. Robert Penn Warren called me one night and told me that "If you're going to make a film on the Civil War, you have to talk to Shelby Foote right away." His first interview was the first eight rolls of film we shot.

Ken,

If you could travel back in time and be a first account witness to any one of the documentaries your have covered which one would it be and why?

The Civil War. It's the most important event in American history, Lincoln our most important president.

Hi Ken,

Big fan of your work, especially National Parks and Prohibition! Thanks for doing this AMA. A few questions:

1. How do you pick the music for your documentaries?
2. How do you decide what subject to focus on in a new documentary? Do you have a "to-do" list, or is there a dart board on your office wall with labels like "Prohibition," "Baseball," and stuff on it?
3. Do you have a favorite book, or one that you wish you had the time to read?
4. Do you have any need for a guy with a BA and MA in History who focused in US History? ^Please??

I have a seven-part response to your four-part question.

No, seriously. The music is central and the key is recording it before the editing begins rather than after. Then it's not something that amplifies emotions you hope are there, but is integral and organic to the process.

Most stories are narratives -- "...and then, and then, and then..." If you tell a good story, the subject itself will reveal what the focus is. No dart boards, but storyboards of developing episodes and films.

I don't read enough.

Sorry not hiring now.

I recall in my undergraduate history courses reading articles that were critical of documentaries in general and your documentaries in particular (especially The Civil War). What do you see as the benefits of documentary film in contributing to historical knowledge and what are its drawbacks?

(Edit -- I always enjoyed your stuff so this is for my own edification and not an attempt to rehash old critiques.)

I think for a while, the academic Academy was suspicious of forms of history that didn't conform to their own scholarly methodology. Even though I use the best scholars for each film, the Academy often found fault. But those days seem long gone. And I think they've come to understand it's apples and oranges.

Hi Ken! There aren't enough superlatives to describe how I feel about your amazing library of work. For a film buff and a history buff and an American culture buff, all of your work hits me just right. But I'm also now a law student so my attention turns to other topics -- have you ever considered doing an expansive series on the history of the Supreme Court? Is there any other institution that most accurately reflects and challenges who we are as Americans throughout history?

There are lots of institutions that accurately reflect us, like baseball and jazz. The Supreme Court would be a great topic.

Mr Burns, I'm interested to know if "The Roosevelts" will be a multi-part documentary. I'm a big fan of Theodore Roosevelt and just wonder how in-depth you will go into his life. BULLY! to you, sir!

In September PBS will broadcast our seven-part, fourteen-hour series The Roosevelts: An Intimate History. It follows not only TR, but FDR and ER and other family members as well -- all in depth. I can't wait for you to see it.

If you made a documentary about yourself who would you want to provide the narration?

I'd want it to be a silent film. Wouldn't that be good.

Hi Ken, first I just want to say that you are my all time favorite documentarian, I think you present America's past and its' figures, both big and small, with such tremendous beauty, grace and dignity while never ignoring the darker aspects of the people or events you are portraying. Everything from the music, the voices, the stories and the way you frame your subjects within the events of their time I find incredible. My question is after Country Music which is expected to be released in 2017 what other subjects are you thinking about exploring, other than the 11th Inning? Also I am so excited for Vietnam.

We've got in 2015, A History of Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies, Jackie Robinson, in 2016, Vietnam, in 2018, Country Music, in 2019, Ernest Hemingway. And we're thinking, we're thinking about the 2020s. Tons of ideas.

Huge fan ever since you hooked me with your Civil War docs. Thanks for doing this!

Question: What's your very best life advice?

This will pass. Get help from others. Be kind to yourself.

Hey Ken! I'm from Walpole and remember bagging your groceries at IGA back in the day. I'm now in Portsmouth and am starting to do some indie film stuff.

So for a question, what originally got you into film, and doing docs specifically?

I've wanted to be a filmmaker since I was 12 years old. My mother had died of cancer when I was 11, my father had a strict curfew but broke it when he wanted me to see a film. I saw him cry for the first time at a film and understood...

Jeez, I haven't thought of the IGA in ages. We put a great restaurant in there now called Burdick's.

What are you views on the designated hitter? Are you a fan? Do you think it's likely the DH will expand to the NL anytime soon? As a purist and Dodgers' fan I hope not...

Okay, so I live in New England and have since 1971. So... I am a purist but a huge David Ortiz fan. So... not a purist.

Mr. Burns, many new and emerging documentary filmmakers struggle with the catch-22 of fundraising - they have trouble securing funds because they are unknowns without an established body of work, yet how can one establish a name and a body of work without needed funds and support? I'm wrestling with that now on my current production.

How did you manage to get funded in the early years when you were an "unknown?" How did you convince funders to lend support to your early efforts, and persuade them that a film about the Brooklyn Bridge, or shakers, was worth their consideration?

I moved to New Hampshire from New York. I knew it was a place I could live for nothing and make the films I wanted to make. That was 35 years ago. I'm still there. That sacrifice is more responsible for breaking your catch-22 than any other thing, except maybe persistence and hard work.

Many thanks for Baseball - I've watched it numerous times and it's all all-time favorite.

Following Jazz, any plans to take on Rock and Roll in a future doc?

Not right now. But we are doing a history of Country Music due in 2018.

How often do you get mistaken for Dave Barry?

All the time. In fact, my twenty-year-old beard hasn't helped a bit.

Hi Ken! "The War" is by far one of my favorite documentaries of all time. I was curious on how you managed to choose the four towns featured in "The War"?

We started with Waterbury, realized we couldn't do just one town (not enough combat veterans still alive), fell into Mobile, Alabama, because of a great memoir by Eugene Sledge, called With The Old Breed, wanted to do Japanese Internment but didn't want a "familiar" West-Coast city and chose Sacramento, and finally met a pilot named Quentin Aanenson who grew up in Luverne, Minnesota.

What were 3 key turning points in your life that got you involved in documentary film making?

1) My mother dying of cancer in 1965. 2) My father crying over a movie. 3) Going to Hampshire College and studying with Jerome Liebling.

Hi Ken! I recently heard Siddhartha Mukarjee speak at a breast cancer conference, and he told us about your plans to make a series from his book "Emperor of All Maladies". When can we expect to see it?

It'll be here in 2015. Our series is based on his superb book.

Has your favorite part of making documentaries changed over the last 30 years?

Nope. Three things: 1) shooting and knowing that archive or that interview or that live cinematography is going to be in the final film. 2) that moment in editing when you change something for the better -- sometimes it's adding, sometimes it's subtracting, sometimes it's rearranging. 3) and right now, evangelizing.

Mr Burns, your documentary Baseball is ridiculously good. What is your favorite moment or quote from the series?

I'm not Ken, but I feel like this has gotta be the best moment.

There are lots of great moments from the series. But Buck singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" has got to be the best.

what, in your opinion, is the greatest baseball game ever played?

Also, what's your favorite team?

Sixth game, 1975 World Series.

Which makes the second question kind of obvious.

Hello Mr. Burns :D

1. What's a topic, concept or story idea that you'd really like to work with, but haven't gotten around to yet for some reason?
2. Is there any one small piece of specific advice that you could give aspiring filmmakers? Any one thing, in any connection, that you learned and that you think others should know, no matter how specific. Often filmmakers will give general advice, but I think it'd be really interesting to learn something specific.

Thanks for doing this AMA :)

1. If I were given a thousand years to live, I wouldn't run out of topics in American history. Stay tuned.
2. It's going to sound like platitudes, but you have to know who you are and how to persevere. Everything else -- talent, luck, etc. -- don't come from you.

What's your favorite book and why?

Jeez. That's impossible. I love Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude, just about everything Mark Twain and Tolstoy ever wrote, and... who am I leaving out? Oh yeah, Shakespeare. And lots of others.

Hello Ken! First off I wanted to thank you for all your work, I adored Horatio's Drive and Prohibition.

Obviously your work is extremely well researched, so you must learn a lot about each topic you cover. My question is: What have you learned throughout the course of making your films that surprised you the most?

Every film is a million, literally a million, surprises. Rather than tell you what you should know -- that's homework -- I'd rather share with you our process of discovery, which is about being surprised every moment.

Hi Ken, huge fan of your baseball documentary. Have you ever thought about doing another sport on the same format?

I love other sports, especially football and basketball, but none of them come close to baseball. So no.

Ken: Have you ever thought of making games or content on other media platforms, or is film your preferred medium?

Just think, Bootleg Bounty for Prohibition!?

That's what the Ken Burns app is trying to do. We've "curated" playlists of recurring themes in our films, a new way to see them. It's pretty cool. Check it out.

Hi Ken, Loved your Baseball Documentary. How different would the ending have been if your had to include the full fall out from the steroid era? Is your love of baseball still intact?

I'd refer you to our 2010 update of Baseball, called the Tenth Inning, where we did deal with the fallout of steroid era. Fortunately, it's mostly in our baseball rearview mirror. And my love hasn't wavered.

Mr. Burns, I absolutely love your work. You are a real inspiration.

I was wondering if you could tell us a little bit about your research process. When you have a topic how do you begin to dive in?

Also, were you ever enticed to make a fiction film? Ever considered it? Or were you always a documentarian through and through?

Well we don't have a lot of researchers. The writer, the producers, myself, and a couple of other people do the bulk of the research. The key is that we never stop researching. It's never a finite initial period in our production process. We're always open to new information.

Thanks so much for answering questions. What is your decision process when choosing subjects for your films?

They choose me. I feel like I'm Samoa or Guam. I'm an American possession. I come across a good story, and I can't say no.

Good afternoon Ken, Thank you for your National Parks special. I wanted to ask you about the National Parks but instead I'm going to ask you - With the 50 year anniversary of the Beatles coming to America have you ever contemplated doing a documentary on the Beatles. Also, what are your thoughts on the Beatles. Like them? Love them? Thank you Ken Frank

I make films on American history. They've certainly changed it and influenced it, but I can't foresee doing something right now. However, I love them. My first record was I Want to Hold Your Hand, their first American hit. And they have the best line in all of music: "And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make."

Hi, Mr. Burns. I loved your series on baseball. I try to watch it during spring training every year.

I'm looking forward to your new Jackie Robinson documentary. Did you learn anything new?

Tons. And we focus on how he got to baseball and what he did afterwards as much as we retell his remarkable almost-Christlike forbearance while playing.

Mr. Burns, what is your personal favorite historical period? If you haven't already made a documentary on it, do you have plans to?

I have no favorite period. I have tried to "visit" nearly all of them, but I'd sure like to meet Abraham Lincoln.

You've done a film on Jazz and and will release one on country music. Are there any plans to do rock-n-roll?

I'd love to do rock-n-roll, but it's not on the immediate dance card.

Hi Ken Thanks for this AMA.

What is your opinion on most of the documentaries today and their effectiveness of narrative story telling? Do you think that the way documentaries portray and tell stories has changed from the time you have worked on your pieces featuring Baseball and WWII?

By the way, I really enjoyed your documentary on WWII in that it gave multiple perspectives of families affected by the war in many different parts of America.

You know documentary is a really unfortunate word. It doesn't do justice to the range of films that are made under its banner. These range from nearly dramatic films to the so-called cinema verite, with many styles in between. It's been constantly changing, and I think mostly for the good. I believe the old forms of Hollywood are fairly well exhausted, and folks have had to look to documentaries and television for the really good stuff.