Florentine Films.
3) Mark Twain
Summary
Recounts Mark Twain's life told primarily through his own words. Includes interviews with Hal Holbrook, Arthur Miller, William Styron and many others.
Summary
Traces the birth of the national park idea in the mid-1800s and follows its evolution for nearly 150 years. Using archival photographs, first-person accounts of historical characters, personal memories and analysis from more than 40 interviews, and what Burns believes is the most stunning cinematography in Florentine Films' history, the series chronicles the steady addition of new parks through the stories of the people who helped create them and...
Summary
Presents the history of women's suffrage in the United States through the dramatic, often turbulent friendship of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan Anthony. Part 1 covers the years from their youth up to the establishment of the National Woman Suffrage Association in 1868. Part 2 spans the period from 1868 to the passage in 1919 of the 19th amendment to the Constitution which gave women the vote.
Summary
Horatio Nelson Jackson, an eccentric Vermont doctor, drove from San Francisco to New York City, in 1903 to became the first person to drive an automobile across the continent - a feat never before accomplished. It would mark the beginning of a new era in America and the end of another. It took Lewis & Clark over two years to go from the Atlantic to the Pacific - Horatio went the opposite direction, by means of the "Horseless carriage", in less than...
9) Prohibition
Summary
Explores the extraordinary story of what happens when a freedom-loving nation outlaws the sale of intoxicating liquor, and the disastrous unintended consequences that follow. Raises profound questions about the proper role of government and the limits of legislating morality.
10) The War of 1812
Summary
A two-hour documentary looking at this important historic event from several perspectives, the American, Canadian, British and Native American. The program will have some limited but very well done reenactments and major historians, authors, and experts.
Summary
Profiles Theodore, Franklin, and Eleanor Roosevelt, three members of the most prominent and influential family in American politics. It is the first time in a major documentary television series that their individual stories have been interwoven into a single narrative. This seven-part, 14 hour film follows the Roosevelts for more than a century, from Theodore's birth in 1858 to Eleanor's death in 1962. Over the course of these years, Theodore would...
12) The dust bowl
Summary
Ken Burns documents the worst human-made ecological disaster in American history, when a frenzied wheat boom on the southern Plains, followed by a decade-long drought during the 1930s, nearly swept away the breadbasket of the nation. Vivid interviews, dramatic photographs, and seldom-seen movie footage bring to life incredible stories of human suffering and perseverance. Includes bonus features.
13) The Civil War
Summary
An epic documentary bringing life to America's most destructive - and defining - conflict. Here is the saga of celebrated generals and the ordinary soldiers. A heroic and transcendent president and a country that had to divide itself in two in order to become one again.
14) The Vietnam War
Summary
The Vietnam War: A Film by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick Ken Burns and Lynn Novick's ten-part, 18-hour documentary series, The Vietnam War, tells the epic story of one of the most consequential, divisive, and controversial events in American history as it has never before been told on film. Visceral and immersive, the series explores the human dimensions of the war through revelatory testimony of nearly 80 witnesses from all sides -- Americans who fought...
15) Medal of honor
Summary
Traces the history of the Medal of Honor from its inception during the Civil War through the Iraq War. Focuses on the stories of a valiant few: Sgt. Paul Smith who died protecting his company at the Baghdad Airport; a Holocaust survivor who single-handedly defends a hill during the Korean War; a Navy SEAL, a veteran of the Vietnam War, who swam for two hours in the ocean, carrying his wounded comrades to safety; a Marine at Iwo Jima who used a flamethrower...
16) The War
Summary
Tells the story of ordinary people in four quintessentially American towns - Waterbury, Connecticut; Mobile, Alabama; Sacramento, California; and Luverne, Minnesota - and examines the ways in which the Second World War touched the lives of every family on every street in every town in America.
Summary
For 17 million Americans, severe, long-term mental illness is a fact of life-a fact little understood by the majority of their fellow citizens. In an effort to raise public awareness of the day-to-day impact mental illness has on families, this intimate documentary profiles Robert Neugeboren and his brother, Jay, as decade after decade they cope with Robert's schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Drawing on Jay's heart-rending yet uplifting family memoir...
18) Divided highways
Summary
It has altered our sense of space, fueled our mega-economy, knifed into the hearts of thriving city neighborhoods, and changed the lives of millions of people in the 40 years it's taken to build. This program about the Interstate Highway System combines archival material, newsreels, and interviews to describe the impact of what has been called the world's largest public works project. The Interstate's effect on community, culture, regionalism, and...
20) The West
Summary
Chronicles the history of the American West, starting with the first European explorations and ending with the beginning of the 20th century. Examines the impact of the white settlers on the lives of the Native Americans and the land. Also discusses the Gold Rush, the Civil War, the building of the transcontinental railroad, the battle of Little Bighorn, and the massacre at Wounded Knee.