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Visions of Race in America in the Films of Ken Burns
October 29, 2008
Ken Burns documentary filmmaker, Florentine Films
Stanley Crouch writer
Henry Louis Gates Jr. director, Du Bois Institute, Harvard
Edward Schumacher-Matos visiting professor, Harvard
Geoffrey C. Ward biographer, historian, documentary script writer
Charles J. Ogletree Jr. professor, Harvard Law School

This discussion explores the themes of race and citizenship in the films of Ken Burns, as viewed through the eyes of the panelists. The program features clips from several of Burns' films, followed by a panel discussion, which includes a question and answer period with the audience.

Culture & Identity | Media & Technology
African American | civil rights | Documentary | Film & Video | Human Rights | Race
WGBH
Harvard Law School
Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Town Hall: Part I
Malik Neal
00:50:40
CSI:NY's Hill Harper and filmmaker Gary Ross join local students and a panel of esteemed local experts for a timely Town Hall Meeting entitled, "Lincoln, Douglass and the Transformative Power of Words." The event seeks to underscore the importance of education in the lives of Abraham Lincol
US Supreme Court and Race
Randall Kennedy
01:07:00
Two Harvard legal scholars discuss the complex and often misunderstood history of how decisions by the United States Supreme Court have affected the legal status of racial minorities in America, and ask if the Supreme Court has been a friend or a foe to African Americans.
Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Town Hall: Part II
Hill Harper
01:31:12
CSI:NY's Hill Harper and filmmaker Gary Ross join local students and a panel of esteemed local experts for a timely Town Hall Meeting entitled, "Lincoln, Douglass and the Transformative Power of Words." The event seeks to underscore the importance of education in the lives of Abraham Lincol
Arguing Affirmative Action / What’s the Purpose?
Michael Sandel
00:55:00
Lecture Seventeen: "Arguing Affirmative Action"
Paul Goodnight: Memorial for the Middle Passage
Paul Goodnight
00:26:54
African cultural artist Paul Goodnight talks about the power of art and its ability to fight inhumanity, change perceptions, and heal old wounds. This is what a Boston monument memorializing the slave trade's "Middle Passage" could do for the world.
The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates
Wes Moore
01:03:00
Wes Moore, combat veteran and former White House Fellow, discusses chance, fate, family, and accountability and his new book The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates. He then introduces representatives from non-profit organizations that work to provide opportunity for at-risk students.
Image of Ken Burns: National Parks - America's Best Idea
Director: Ken Burns
Starring: Andy Garcia, Peter Coyote, Kevin Conway, Philip Bosco, Adam Arkin
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Image of The War: An Intimate History, 1941-1945
Author: Ken Burns, Geoffrey C. Ward
Publisher: Knopf (2007)
Binding: Hardcover, 480 pages
Image of The Civil War - A Film by Ken Burns
Director: Ken Burns
Starring: Garrison Keillor, Morgan Freeman, Jason Robards, Sam Waterston, David McCullough
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Image of Lewis & Clark - The Journey of the Corps of Discovery
Director: Ken Burns
Starring: Matthew Broderick, Sam Waterston, Murphy Guyer, Adam Arkin, Hal Holbrook
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Image of Baseball - A Film By Ken Burns
Director: Ken Burns
Starring: Arthur Ashe, Roger Angell, Bud Abbott, Hank Aaron, Mamie Ruth Moberly
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Image of Ken Burns Presents: The West
Director: Stephen Ives
Starring: Matthew Broderick, Philip Bosco, Adam Arkin, George Aguilar, Peter Coyote
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Image of Jazz : A Film By Ken Burns
Director:
Starring:
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Image of Ken Burns - American Lives (Thomas Jefferson / Lewis & Clark / Frank Lloyd Wright / Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Susan B Anthony / Mark Twain / Horatio's Drive / Unforgivable Blackness)
Director: Ken Burns;Lynn Novick
Starring: Julie Harris, Philip Bosco, Adam Arkin, Hal Holbrook, Edward Herrmann
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Image of Ken Burns' America Collection
Director: Ken Burns
Starring: Ken Burns
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Image of The All-American Skin Game, or Decoy of Race: The Long and the Short of It, 1990-1994
Author: Stanley Crouch
Publisher: Vintage (1997)
Binding: Paperback, 288 pages
Image of In Search of Our Roots: How 19 Extraordinary African Americans Reclaimed Their Past
Author: Henry Louis Gates Jr.
Publisher: Crown (2009)
Binding: Hardcover, 448 pages
Image of Colored People: A Memoir
Author: Henry Louis Gates Jr.
Publisher: Vintage (1995)
Binding: Paperback, 240 pages
Image of The Trials of Phillis Wheatley: America's First Black Poet and Encounters with the Founding Fathers
Author: Henry Louis Gates Jr.
Publisher: Basic Civitas Books (2003)
Binding: Hardcover, 192 pages
Image of Loose Canons: Notes on the Culture Wars
Author: Henry Louis Gates Jr.
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (1993)
Binding: Paperback, 224 pages
Image of Lincoln on Race and Slavery
Author:
Publisher: Princeton University Press (2009)
Binding: Hardcover, 416 pages
Image of Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Man
Author: Henry Louis Gates Jr
Publisher: Vintage (1998)
Binding: Paperback, 256 pages
Image of The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of African-American Literary Criticism
Author: Henry Louis Gates Jr.
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (1989)
Binding: Paperback, 320 pages
Image of The Future of the Race
Author: Cornel West, Henry Louis Gates Jr.
Publisher: Vintage (1997)
Binding: Paperback, 224 pages
Image of From Lynch Mobs to the Killing State: Race and the Death Penalty in America (The Charles Hamilton Houston Institute Series on Race and Justice)
Author: Austin Sarat
Publisher: NYU Press (2006)
Binding: Paperback, 320 pages
Image of When Law Fails: Making Sense of Miscarriages of Justice (Charles Hamilton Houston Institute Series on Rae and Justice)
Author: Austin Sarat
Publisher: NYU Press (2009)
Binding: Paperback, 320 pages
Image of All Deliberate Speed: Reflections on the First Half-Century of Brown v. Board of Education
Author: Charles J. Ogletree
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (2004)
Binding: Hardcover, 416 pages
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