Imagine Magazine - Johns Hopkins - November/December 2015 - (Page 6)

in my own words Portal to the Past Ken Burns DANIEL J. WHITE Ken Burns has been making documentary films for almost 40 years. Exploring subjects from the Civil War and cancer to baseball and the Brooklyn Bridge, Burns's painstaking work and distinctive style have helped make history accessible, intimate, and deeply meaningful. As he explains, understanding history not only helps us understand who we are as a people; it gives us the opportunity to help shape our future. The power of pictures When I was 11, my mother passed away. My father imposed a fairly strict curfew, but he would forgive that curfew if there was a good movie playing, and we would go to the movies together. I saw my dad cry for the first time at a movie. I realized the power of film, and I decided-at age 12-to be a filmmaker. When I arrived at Hampshire College in 1971, all my teachers were social documentary still photographers. They reminded me that there is as much drama in what is and what was as anything the human imagination can dream up. I tell stories that help answer the question, who are we? Who are these strange and complicated people who call themselves Americans? What does an investigation of the past tell us, not only about where we were, but where we are now? History isn't just about the past. It's a set of questions we ask of the past, informed by our own anxieties, fears, and desires, and by our wish for the future-our wish to be better. Timeless themes All of my subjects deepen our understanding of who we are as a people: the Civil War, Prohibition, the Dust Bowl, the 6 imagine national parks. We did a film about dyslexic boys in a school in Vermont memorizing and then publicly reciting the Gettysburg Address, and another about the Central Park Five, the five black and Hispanic boys falsely accused and convicted in the Central Park jogger case. We recently aired a series on PBS on the Roosevelts. All of these subjects speak to timeless American themes of freedom, justice, race, and the beauty of our environment and the threats to it. We're finishing a film on Jackie Robinson that's much deeper than any previous treatment of him. He's a heroic figure in American history, yet we've permitted that heroism to distract us from questions about the whole arc of his life-not just that one season when he came up to the major leagues. That arc speaks directly to themes we're talking about today: Confederate flags, driving while black, discrimination. He represents the first progress in civil rights since the Civil War, and following the course of his life puts us in the unusual position of being able to watch the civil rights movement unfolding. History as healer My long-time partner Lynn Novick and I are producing a 10-part series on the history of the war in Vietnam. There could be no more complicated subject. It's very provocative, because it suggests that almost every assumption we have about the war is only a shadow of what really happened. We've benefited from new scholarship and access to Vietnam and its archives and people. It's helped us tell a story that is complex and rich and might help to heal the deep wounds that festered during Vietnam. These are wounds that have since metastasized in our country and are, I think, responsible for many of the ills we see in our political and social systems: people don't talk with each other; they talk at each other. They don't have an argument in order to work something out; they have an argument in order to argue, and a good deal of that began with Vietnam. A matter of trust In our media-driven society, we can access an avalanche of information with the click of a mouse. What we desperately seek is curation. How do you digest a gazillion different entries on the war in Vietnam? How do you know which one is true, which wasn't made by someone with a political axe to grind? Who will cut through the clutter? The binge watching we do is just a desperate cry for help. It's us saying, "I trust you. Take me to House of Cards or The Roosevelts or Downton Abbey. This is a good brand. I love the writing and the cinematography and the casting." With The Roosevelts, they'll see a Nov/Dec 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Imagine Magazine - Johns Hopkins - November/December 2015

Big Picture
In My Own Words Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns
National Treasure Volunteering at the National Archives
Driving My Future, Exploring the Past The many rewards of genealogy
Past in Focus National History Day
People-Powered Movements Studying revolutions at Phillips Academy Andover
Hooked on History From paleontology to conservation science, four graduate students share their research
This is History My summer at Crow Canyon
The Benefits of Majoring in History
Making History My journey to the inaugural International History Olympiad
Historians in Training The Concord Review Summer Program
The Ultimate Game
In My Own Footsteps Putting my choreography in the spotlight
Selected Opportunities and Resources
Off the Shelf Review of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby
Word Wise
Exploring Career Options Interview with archaeologist Inna Moore
One Step Ahead Be your own priority
Planning Ahead for College Choosing the best college for your major
Students Review: University of Washington
Mark Your Calendar
Knossos Games

Imagine Magazine - Johns Hopkins - November/December 2015