Ken Burns Documentaries, Life and Career

Born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1953, Kenneth Lauren Burns founded his production company Florentine Films with several friends in 1976 while simultaneously working as a cinematographer for the BBC. In 1977, he began work on a film called Brooklyn Bridge about the New York bridge’s construction, during which he developed his signature style of fluid editing, quick cuts, and intimate narration from seasoned actors.

Brooklyn Bridge got Hollywood’s attention, earning him his first Academy Award nomination in 1982, and beginning his decades-long production association with PBS. After releasing The Shakers: Hands To Work, Hearts to God (1984), his subsequent film The Statue of Liberty earned him his second Oscar nomination in 1986. For the next forty-plus years, Ken became a major contributor to the world of documentary films and television series, earning Emmy awards, the National Humanities Medal, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

Ken has directed more than thirty films, including The Civil War (1990), Mark Twain (2001), The National Parks: America’s Best Idea (2009), The Central Park Five (2012, with Sarah Burns and David McMahon), Muhammad Ali (2021), and The U.S. and the Holocaust (2022 with Lynn Novick and Sarah Botstein).

Filmmaker Ken Burns has dedicated most of his waking life to mastering documentary filmmaking and creating his unique style. Here are a few fast facts about Ken:

1. 1. He describes his family as “hippies". Ken’s family was nomadic, frequently moving during Ken’s childhood. Some of the places they lived include Delaware, Michigan, and France.
2. 2. He collects quilts. Ken has a love for and has collected quilts for years. The University of Nebraska displayed a large portion of his collection in The International Quilt Study Center & Museum in 2018.
3. 3. The death of his mother informs his work. Ken’s mother died of breast cancer when he was three years old, and he agrees with his father’s insight that his work is an “attempt to make people long gone come back alive.” When asked if he’d ever make a film about his mother, he stated, “All of my films are about her.”
4. 4. His filmmaking style has its own name. Film lovers have dubbed Ken Burns documentaries’ signature style of using close-ups on still photographs, zoom effects, pans left and right, emotional music, and voice-over narration as “The Ken Burns Effect.” Many different editing software companies use the term in their effects options. Learn how to use the Ken Burns effect.
5. 5. He’s also an actor. Ken has worked as an actor in several films and television shows, often playing himself. Some of his acting credits include Clifford’s Puppy Days, Difficult People, Gettysburg (as Hancock’s staff officer), The Mindy Project, and The Simpsons.

Ken’s many years of experience have made him a foremost expert in writing, directing, producing, and editing documentary films and television series. You can look forward to these five highlights and more from his class on documentary filmmaking:

1. 1. Add first-person narrative for world-building. Ken uses actors in his documentaries to read historical documents in character to steep his viewers in another time and place. “One of the things I did from the very beginning is I tempered the third-person narration with a chorus of first-person voices, reading newspaper accounts, military records, telegrams, love letters, diaries, journals, that gave a sense of how people spoke that day,” he says. You’ll learn how to use first-person voices to capture the time in a way that feels accessible to your audience, reminding them, in Ken’s words, “that people actually lived and felt in ways similar to us.”
2. 2. Research to find your story. Ken believes a documentary’s emotional story exists separately from its subject, and to find the story, you’ll need to do a lot of research. “We want to cast, at the beginning, as wide a net as possible, in every area,” he says. “Reading lots of books. Giving the writer lots of books. Suggesting the goalposts. And then, we’re learning. The writer’s beginning to shape a narrative.” Ken will teach you how to use your research to discover a compelling story arc for your film.
3. 3. Edit toward a larger story goal. When editing, Ken advises knowing the overall story goal you want to achieve and letting go of footage that might look great but won’t serve that goal. “The proverbial cutting room floor isn’t filled with bad stuff,” Ken says. “It’s filled with great stuff that you would go, ‘Wow. You’re an idiot. Why isn’t that in the final film?’ But I could put it back into the final film and show you the way that wonderful scene destabilized the arc of something better.” You’ll learn how to make the hard decisions that will improve your film. “You will have to kill, as they say in journalism, all your little darlings,” Ken says, “and be willing to sacrifice them in the service of something else that has gone places that you couldn’t even imagine.” Get Ken’s tips on finding the story in your documentary.
4. 4. Let the music be your guide. Unlike feature films, Ken chooses music for his documentaries early in the process and lets the score guide him while he edits. His class will teach you about the importance of music and how the right score can elevate your story. “The music, itself, is one of the directors of the film rather than something that’s added as an afterthought,” Ken says. “We would rather record music that we’re drawn to emotionally that we think fits a variety of needs, record many different versions of it, and permit the music to dictate, in many cases, the pace and rhythm as we develop those scenes.”
5. 5. Take the first step, not the right step. Ken believes getting started remains the biggest obstacle to most filmmakers. In his class, you’ll gain the confidence to begin your storytelling journey. “The only thing that matters is not which is the right step one. It’s that there be a step one,” Ken says. “And that be done with confidence. Not without anxiety. Not without doubt. But just with the idea that I’m gonna do something to move. Get started.”

To learn more about filmmaking and storytelling, try one of these classes from our MasterClass instructors:

1. 1. Jodie Foster on filmmaking: Academy Award winner Jodie Foster began her career as a child actress, successfully continued her career into adulthood, then transitioned into directing and filmmaking in recent years. Watch Jodie’s class to learn about story storytelling and how to execute your creative vision in film and direct actors.
2. 2. Spike Lee on independent filmmaking: Film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor Spike Lee has produced or directed dozens of films since the 1980s, exploring the subject of race relations and political issues and launching the careers of some major film stars. Watch Spike’s class to learn how this Academy Award winner develops strong characters, preps for filming, and finds inspiration.
3. 3. Werner Herzog on feature and documentary filmmaking: Self-taught filmmaker and New German cinema pioneer Werner Herzog made his mark on Hollywood with his unique filmmaking style, vision, and voice, boasting a lengthy filmography that began in the 1960s. Watch Werner’s class to learn his approach to getting inspired, writing for the screen, finding financing, and directing the film you want to make in your own style.

Developing your own perspective on the world around you while relaying the facts provides the heart of any good documentary film. Discover Ken Burn’s tips for writing a documentary script, how to balance fact and fiction, and how to do research for a documentary film when you sign up for a MasterClass Annual Membership.