Upon first glance, Ken Burns’ latest project, “The American Buffalo,” might seem a bit out of character for the Emmy-winning documentarian, who has already tackled everything from the Civil War and baseball to country music, the national parks and Prohibition. But a deeper look reveals that the two-part series — which was written by Dayton Duncan and produced by Julie Dunfey, two of Burns’ longtime collaborators — fits right in with the rest of his filmography, as it traces the dramatic history of the American buffalo (named the national mammal of the United States in 2016) and connects it to our country’s destructive history.
The four-hour series details the near extinction of the animal at the hands of white expansion and greed, as well as its eventual restoration thanks to dedicated recovery efforts beginning in the late 19th century. Anchored by deeply moving interviews with members of the Northern Plains, Central Plains...
The four-hour series details the near extinction of the animal at the hands of white expansion and greed, as well as its eventual restoration thanks to dedicated recovery efforts beginning in the late 19th century. Anchored by deeply moving interviews with members of the Northern Plains, Central Plains...
- 10/21/2023
- by Kaitlin Thomas
- Gold Derby
Ken Burns will dive into the history of the American buffalo as part of a new two-part, four-hour film set to air on PBS from October 16 to 17.
The American Buffalo is the biography of the shaggy bovid which has been in production for four years. It will take viewers on a journey through more than 10,000 years of North American history and across some of the continent’s most iconic landscapes, tracing the mammal’s evolution, its significance to the Great Plains, and its relationship to the Indigenous People of North America.
The series was written by Dayton Duncan, the author of the companion book, Blood Memory: The Tragic Decline and Improbable Resurrection of the American Buffalo, to be published by Knopf timed to the broadcast. It was produced by Burns’s longtime colleague Julie Dunfey. Julianna Brannum, a member of the Quahada band of the Comanche Nation of Oklahoma, served as consulting producer.
The American Buffalo is the biography of the shaggy bovid which has been in production for four years. It will take viewers on a journey through more than 10,000 years of North American history and across some of the continent’s most iconic landscapes, tracing the mammal’s evolution, its significance to the Great Plains, and its relationship to the Indigenous People of North America.
The series was written by Dayton Duncan, the author of the companion book, Blood Memory: The Tragic Decline and Improbable Resurrection of the American Buffalo, to be published by Knopf timed to the broadcast. It was produced by Burns’s longtime colleague Julie Dunfey. Julianna Brannum, a member of the Quahada band of the Comanche Nation of Oklahoma, served as consulting producer.
- 1/16/2023
- by Rosy Cordero
- Deadline Film + TV
Earlier in 2019, Ken Burns and his Florentine Films collaborators Dayton Duncan and Julie Dunfey took a whirlwind bus trip that whisked them around and across the entire state of Tennessee in a few short days. Their itinerary included several places with significant ties to the history of country music: Bristol, site of Ralph Peer’s 1927 and 1928 recording sessions that first captured the Carter family and Jimmie Rodgers; Knoxville and Sevierville, central to Dolly Parton’s story among others; Memphis, the birthplace of rock & roll with Sam Phillips’ Sun Studio and...
- 9/13/2019
- by Jon Freeman
- Rollingstone.com
There may be no documentarian who’s ever taken the dictation to “show your work” more seriously than Ken Burns. The omnipresent filmmaker has made his name on deep, dense dives into American culture that provide as much context and archival material as possible without fogging up the overall narrative. It’s an impressive balancing act that has helped him direct and produce examinations on everything from the evolution of baseball, the lasting legacy of the Roosevelts, the intricate horrors of the Vietnam War, and beyond. Now, alongside producer Julie Dunfey and writer/producer Dayton Duncan, Burns has set his sights on the origins and impact of country music, a thoroughly American genre with an extremely complicated history. It’s a hugely ambitious project given just how many decades the genre has encompassed. While Burns’ “Jazz” zoomed in on about 30 years of history over the course of 4 episodes, “Country Music...
- 9/12/2019
- by Caroline Framke
- Variety Film + TV
Filmmaker Ken Burns and his collaborators on PBS’ upcoming “Country Music” documentary series had no inside connections to the country music community when they began work on the eight-part series more than eight years ago. And that’s a good thing, in the view of Vince Gill, the renowned singer-songwriter.
“Country Music,” a masterful chronicle of what Burns calls “a uniquely American art form,” is set to debut Sept. 15. The fact that Burns and his longtime producers Dayton Duncan and Julie Dunfey were not “insiders” allowed them to tell the story with a level of objectivity that made for a more powerful work, Gill said.
“It’s finally go the respect that it’s never had,” Gill said Monday night as he joined Burns, Duncan and Dunfey at New York’s 92Y for a screening of clips and Q&a about the series, moderated by music journalist Alan Light.
“The...
“Country Music,” a masterful chronicle of what Burns calls “a uniquely American art form,” is set to debut Sept. 15. The fact that Burns and his longtime producers Dayton Duncan and Julie Dunfey were not “insiders” allowed them to tell the story with a level of objectivity that made for a more powerful work, Gill said.
“It’s finally go the respect that it’s never had,” Gill said Monday night as he joined Burns, Duncan and Dunfey at New York’s 92Y for a screening of clips and Q&a about the series, moderated by music journalist Alan Light.
“The...
- 9/10/2019
- by Cynthia Littleton
- Variety Film + TV
Ken Burns was in Dallas some years ago visiting a good friend, philanthropist Cappy McGarr. The filmmaker was working on his 2012 Depression-era miniseries, The Dust Bowl, and as usual for a workaholic who often has six or seven films brewing, Burns was turning over ideas for his next project. When McGarr suggested tackling country music, “it just exploded in my brain — like, of course,” Burns says. “And as we got into it, we saw that it was as real, important, and emotionally compelling as any film we’ve made.”
Related:...
Related:...
- 8/30/2019
- by Will Hermes
- Rollingstone.com
At a panel previewing his forthcoming PBS documentary “Country Music,” legendary filmmaker Ken Burns addressed inevitable questions about the origins of country music and the genre “not having a mass appeal.”
The director, who was joined on stage by some of the musicians featured in the marathon 16-hour endeavor, bristled a little when asked about the latter.
“I don’t know what could have more mass appeal than country music,” Burns said in response, before pointing the fact that each member of the Beatles discovered their love for music through various country stars and lamenting the fact that country music “tends to be siloed into one single thing.”
“We cloak country music in hound-dogs and pickup trucks and good old boys and six packs of beer,” Burns went on to say. “But it deals with love and loss, particularly love, and it’s hard to address it…The arguments we...
The director, who was joined on stage by some of the musicians featured in the marathon 16-hour endeavor, bristled a little when asked about the latter.
“I don’t know what could have more mass appeal than country music,” Burns said in response, before pointing the fact that each member of the Beatles discovered their love for music through various country stars and lamenting the fact that country music “tends to be siloed into one single thing.”
“We cloak country music in hound-dogs and pickup trucks and good old boys and six packs of beer,” Burns went on to say. “But it deals with love and loss, particularly love, and it’s hard to address it…The arguments we...
- 7/30/2019
- by Will Thorne
- Variety Film + TV
Ken Burns’ upcoming documentary Country Music will begin airing on PBS stations before the year is out, but a piece of it will live on forever at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. At a press conference on Wednesday in Nashville, Burns showed a clip from the documentary and announced that he would be donating all the transcripts and interviews from the project to the Hall of Fame.
The eight-part documentary, on which Burns worked with regular collaborators Dayton Duncan and Julie Dunfey, was filmed over the course...
The eight-part documentary, on which Burns worked with regular collaborators Dayton Duncan and Julie Dunfey, was filmed over the course...
- 3/27/2019
- by Jon Freeman
- Rollingstone.com
Get ready for a grand ole doc’ry.
Country fans have been thirsty for years just to get a release date for, much less see, Ken Burns’ characteristically epic documentary on the genre. A delivery date for “Country Music” was finally provided Friday in PBS’ presentation for the film at the Television Critics Association conference in Pasadena: It’ll air across eight nights in the Sept. 15-25 time frame.
And you know you’re a true country fan if you look at the details unveiled about the doc and your first response is: Only 16 hours?
“Sixteen and a half,” corrected writer/producer Dayton Duncan, one of Burns’ longtime filmmaking partners — happy to have snuck even a few extra minutes in — as he spoke with Variety after the TCA panel. The only way to get it down to that length was by cutting off the history the film covers in the mid-1990s,...
Country fans have been thirsty for years just to get a release date for, much less see, Ken Burns’ characteristically epic documentary on the genre. A delivery date for “Country Music” was finally provided Friday in PBS’ presentation for the film at the Television Critics Association conference in Pasadena: It’ll air across eight nights in the Sept. 15-25 time frame.
And you know you’re a true country fan if you look at the details unveiled about the doc and your first response is: Only 16 hours?
“Sixteen and a half,” corrected writer/producer Dayton Duncan, one of Burns’ longtime filmmaking partners — happy to have snuck even a few extra minutes in — as he spoke with Variety after the TCA panel. The only way to get it down to that length was by cutting off the history the film covers in the mid-1990s,...
- 2/2/2019
- by Chris Willman
- Variety Film + TV
On September 15th, 2019, PBS will premiere the first episode of documentary filmmaker Ken Burns’ Country Music, a detailed exploration of the genre which has been in the works for the past eight years.
Directed by Burns and produced by the acclaimed filmmaker with his long-time collaborators Dayton Duncan and Julie Dunfey, Country Music premieres Sunday, September 15th through Wednesday, September 18th, and Sunday, September 22nd, through Wednesday, September 25th at 8 p.m. Et on PBS stations. Episodes will be available for streaming as well. The documentary follows Burns’ 2017 exploration of the Vietnam War.
Directed by Burns and produced by the acclaimed filmmaker with his long-time collaborators Dayton Duncan and Julie Dunfey, Country Music premieres Sunday, September 15th through Wednesday, September 18th, and Sunday, September 22nd, through Wednesday, September 25th at 8 p.m. Et on PBS stations. Episodes will be available for streaming as well. The documentary follows Burns’ 2017 exploration of the Vietnam War.
- 2/1/2019
- by Stephen L. Betts
- Rollingstone.com
PBS has previewed some of its 2019 launches at the Television Critics Association Press Tour.
Here’s the rundown:
*** Ken Burns’s Country Music will premiere Sept. 15. The 16-Hour documentary chronicles the history of the genre, from the Carter Family, Jimmie Rodgers and Bob Wills to Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Loretta Lynn, Charley Pride, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, Garth Brooks and more. The eight-part series is directed by Burns and is produced by Burns and long-time collaborators Dayton Duncan and Julie Dunfey. It runs Sunday, September 15 through Wednesday, September 18, and Sunday, September 22 through Wednesday, September 25 at 8:00-10:00 p.m. Et.
*** PBS and Ryman Auditorium present Country Music: Live at the Ryman, a concert celebrating the Burns series. The show is set for March 27. Burns will host the evening, which will feature performances by Dierks Bentley, Rosanne Cash, Rodney Crowell, Rhiannon Giddens, Vince Gill, Brenda Lee,...
Here’s the rundown:
*** Ken Burns’s Country Music will premiere Sept. 15. The 16-Hour documentary chronicles the history of the genre, from the Carter Family, Jimmie Rodgers and Bob Wills to Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Loretta Lynn, Charley Pride, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, Garth Brooks and more. The eight-part series is directed by Burns and is produced by Burns and long-time collaborators Dayton Duncan and Julie Dunfey. It runs Sunday, September 15 through Wednesday, September 18, and Sunday, September 22 through Wednesday, September 25 at 8:00-10:00 p.m. Et.
*** PBS and Ryman Auditorium present Country Music: Live at the Ryman, a concert celebrating the Burns series. The show is set for March 27. Burns will host the evening, which will feature performances by Dierks Bentley, Rosanne Cash, Rodney Crowell, Rhiannon Giddens, Vince Gill, Brenda Lee,...
- 2/1/2019
- by Bruce Haring
- Deadline Film + TV
The full list of television winners and nominees at the 2013 Producers Guild of America Awards is as follows: The David L. Wolper Award for Outstanding Producer of Long-Form Television
American Horror Story (Brad Buecker, Dante Di Loreto, Brad Falchuk, Ryan Murphy, Chip Vucelich, Alexis Martin Woodall)
The Dust Bowl (Ken Burns, Dayton Duncan, Julie Dunfey)
Game Change (Gary Goetzman, Tom Hanks, Jay Roach, Amy Sayres, Steven Shareshian, Danny Strong) - Winner
Hatfields & McCoys (Barry Berg, Kevin Costner, Darrell Fetty, Leslie Greif, Herb Nanas)
Sherlock (Mark Gatiss, Steven Moffat, Beryl Vertue, Sue Vertue) The Norman Felton Award for Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television, Drama
Breaking Bad (Melissa Bernstein, Sam Catlin, Bryan Cranston, Vince Gilligan, Peter Gould, Mark Johnson, Stewart (more)...
American Horror Story (Brad Buecker, Dante Di Loreto, Brad Falchuk, Ryan Murphy, Chip Vucelich, Alexis Martin Woodall)
The Dust Bowl (Ken Burns, Dayton Duncan, Julie Dunfey)
Game Change (Gary Goetzman, Tom Hanks, Jay Roach, Amy Sayres, Steven Shareshian, Danny Strong) - Winner
Hatfields & McCoys (Barry Berg, Kevin Costner, Darrell Fetty, Leslie Greif, Herb Nanas)
Sherlock (Mark Gatiss, Steven Moffat, Beryl Vertue, Sue Vertue) The Norman Felton Award for Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television, Drama
Breaking Bad (Melissa Bernstein, Sam Catlin, Bryan Cranston, Vince Gilligan, Peter Gould, Mark Johnson, Stewart (more)...
- 1/27/2013
- by By Christian Tobin
- Digital Spy
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