Renowned filmmaker Ken Burns speaks Thursday at Purdue University as part of Purdue’s series on Corporate Citizenship and Ethics.
Ken Burns is an Emmy winning and Academy award nominated documentarian. His free talk Thursday evening, “Sharing the American Experience” will cover The Civil War, Baseball, and Jazz. He says while he is used to being behind the camera, it’s not uncommon to be on stage or sharing the spotlight.
Burns’ next film, called “Defying the Nazis, The Sharps' War,” airs tomorrow evening on PBS stations. It’s a little-known story about an American minister and his wife who rescue refugees in Europe before and after the start of World War II. While it takes years for Burns to document and film stories like this one, he says he doesn’t feel the need to worry about how technology changes over the course of the project.
“Defying the Nazis, The Sharps War” uses the typical and effective Ken Burns style: through letters and journals - and includes actor Tom Hanks as the voice of Waitstill Sharp. It features firsthand interviews with the now adult children whom the Sharps saved, as well as historians, authors and Holocaust scholars.
Burns has several more projects in progress including one on country music, the Vietnam War, and stand up comedy. Ken Burn’s talk, “Sharing the American Experience” is Thursday evening at 6:30 pm at Elliott Hall of Music on the Purdue campus.
