Are you in the mood to watch a good documentary series about American history? With your library card, you can stream the films of Ken Burns on Hoopla for free! In honor of the legendary filmmaker’s birthday (7/29), the library has put together a list of recommended works either directed or produced by Burns, who has now been documenting the history of the American experience for nearly 40 years.
“The Civil War, an epic nine-episode series by the award-winning documentary filmmaker Ken Burns and produced in conjunction with WETA, Washington, D.C., first aired in September of 1990 to an audience of 40 million viewers. The film is a comprehensive and definitive history of the American Civil War, and the recipient of 40 major film and television awards, including two Emmys and two Grammys.” -PBS.org
“The 10-part series follows the growth and development of jazz music from the gritty streets of New Orleans to the Lincoln Gardens on Chicago’s south side, where Louis Armstrong first won fame, from Prohibition-era speakeasies to the wide-open clubs of Kansas City, from the elegant Roseland Ballroom in Times Square, where only whites were allowed to dance, to the more egalitarian Savoy Ballroom in Harlem, where people of all colors mingled.” -PBS.org
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 in the war and others who opposed it, as well as combatants and civilians from North and South Vietnam.” -PBS.org
Click below to stream these additional films by Ken Burns!
To sign up for Hoopla, you will need your library card number, PIN, and email. If you have any questions about your library card info, please call the Reference Desk at 732-873-8700 ext. 111.
Thanks for reading!
-George, FTPL
