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A d v e r t i s e m e n t The Massachusetts Teachers Association is proud to sponsor high-quality educational programming on WGBH. MTA members include teachers, education support professionals, higher education faculty and staff, retired educators and students preparing for careers in education. MTA IS A PROUD SPONSOR OF HIGH SCHOOL QUIZ SHOW www.massteacher.org
Radio Spotlight A Conversation with Ken Burns For 35 years, documentary filmmaker Ken Burns has been an illuminating voice in our national conversation—on topics ranging from the Civil War to the Statue of Liberty to America’s national pastime. This month, Burns and co-producer Lynn Novick bring their signature substance and style to a painful and little-understood chapter in American history, detailing the rise, rule and fall of the 18 th Amendment in Prohibition. Their threepart PBS series will be featured in an outreach partnership with the National Constitution Center to foster a national conversation about civility and democracy. WGBH’s Tina Vaz recently caught up with Burns to talk about Prohibition, public radio and the state of our public discourse. QWhat drew you to the subject of Prohibition always looking for good stories to tell, A We’re and Prohibition engages so many interesting aspects. It’s a story of single-issue political campaigns that metastasize with horrible, unintended consequences. Of smear campaigns against presidential politicians. Of unfunded Congressional mandates and the demonization of recent immigrants to the US. It’s about a group of people who felt they’d lost control of their country and wanted to take it back. And, of course, it’s about a colossal civic failure that resulted in the only repeal of a Constitutional amendment. QYou’ve said that each of your films asks: Who are we What does Prohibition tell you about who we are as Americans A Like all of our films, Prohibition doesn’t fully answer the question of who we are, but it deepens our understanding. Prohibition—if it’s taught at all—rarely gets past the familiar images of flappers, gangsters and gin joints. This film offers a closer look at how America’s “Great Experiment” was intricately intertwined with social factors such as women’s suffrage, Emancipation, industrialization and immigration. QWhy did you get involved with the “Civility and Democracy” project A Like most Americans, Lynn and I are shocked at the way in which our political dialogue has degenerated in recent years. There have been many other times in our history when civility failed, and there were consequences—the Civil War being the most powerful example. Prohibition is a less pernicious example, but it’s an important one nevertheless. The failure of people to talk with each other and the absolutism of the various sides contributed to the problem. The film seemed a logical place to go public with a discussion of civility and democracy in our political discourse. QWhat role does public radio play in advancing civility and democracy radio has long been a beacon of A Public reasoned discourse in an otherwise relatively cacophonous world. That’s one of the reasons it’s still so influential despite the primacy of television and other visual media. Public radio consistently delivers news in a completely nonpartisan way and provides an intelligent and in-depth look at the issues. That alone earns it my utmost respect. QWhat are some of your public radio favorites A Morning Edition and All Things Considered are the two best programs on radio, followed closely by Weekend Edition. Once you start there, everything else is gravy, from A Prairie Home Companion to Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! to the myriad local programs, many produced by WGBH, that I listen to all the time. QProhibition continues your longtime collaboration with jazz musician Wynton Marsalis. Why is music important to your storytelling, and what does Marsalis bring to this project A Music is important because it delivers complex thoughts and emotions in an immediate and extraordinarily precise way. It’s a major element of filmmaking and too often added at the end rather than being an organic part. We record our music early in our editing process—sometimes even before editing begins—so that the music can inform it. We don’t have enough time to talk about Wynton Marsalis’s genius! He’s one of the greatest trumpet players and jazz composers on the planet today. He is the greatest teacher of jazz, this extraordinary American art form that has become a worldwide phenomenon. And he’s a very smart guy who continually surprises me with the depth and profundity of his thought. We’ve been friends for nearly 20 years, and I couldn’t imagine leaving home without him on a project like Prohibition. QYou’ve said that you’re in the “memory business.” How is our national memory faring in the age of Twitter have presidential candidates who don’t A We know the correct state in which the first battle of the American Revolution took place, and who can’t distinguish our Founding Fathers from our Founding Sons. A recent study showed that only 9 percent of fourth graders could identify a photograph of Abraham Lincoln. That’s terrifying. What we’re trying to do in public media is to be a bulwark against the chaos and entropy that such a lack of knowledge fosters. QYou’re a longtime friend of WGBH. What do you think WGBH adds to the media landscape A Public media produces the best children’s, science, nature, drama, public affairs and, I’m told, history programming out there today. WGBH is the big muscle car coming down the street. It has had an enormous influence on the history of public media and continues to set the gold standard. QWhat’s next for you A We just finished editing a film on the history of the Dust Bowl, which will be out in 2012. We’re beginning editing of a film on the Central Park jogger case, focusing on the five black and Hispanic boys who went to jail for a crime they didn’t commit. We’re about halfway through editing a first-ever series on Theodore, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. And we’re beginning a biography of Jackie Robinson and a major history of the Vietnam War. QAny predictions for the Red Sox A We’re going to win the World Series. I say it every spring! Prohibition premieres 10/2, 10/3 & 10/4 at 8pm on WGBH 2 (learn more about the series on page 8). wgbh.org/prohibition 23
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New from Ken Burns: Prohibition - WGBH

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