A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

Inning 5: Shadow Ball (1930-1940) Written by: Geoffrey C. Ward & Ken Burns Throughout America, and even on the baseball diamonds in New York's Central Park, thousands of homeless people build shantytowns called "Hoovervilles." More than ever, America needs heroes. And even as it struggles to make it through the Depression, baseball provides them.  But the heroes do not come only from the Major Leagues. The Negro Leagues bring baseball to towns the Major Leagues ignore...to people the Major Leagues spurn. To delight the fans, they develop an elaborate warm-up routine in pantomime; throwing and hitting an invisible ball so convincingly spectators can't believe it's not real. It's called "shadow ball." In the fall of 1994, Major League Baseball was crippled by a players' strike that prematurely ended that year's season at the midway point and led to the cancellation of the '94 World Series. Millions of fans of the national pa

Beginning with a searing indictment of slavery, this first episode dramatically evokes the causes of the war, from the Cotton Kingdom of the South to the northern abolitionists who opposed it. Here are the burning questions of Union and states' rights, John Brown at Harpers Ferry, the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, the firing on Fort Sumter, and the jubilant rush to arms on both sides. Along the way the series' major figures are introduced: Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, and a host of lesser-known but equally vivid characters. The episode comes to a climax with the disastrous Union defeat at Manassas, Virginia, where both sides learn it is to be a very long war. From the episode guide at PBS.org It's hard to believe that almost 30 years have passed since Ken Burns' The Civil War premiered on September 23, 1990, when the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) aired The Cause: 1861 , the first of nine episodes about Amer

The World at War Last Days in Vietnam The Civil War: A Film by Ken Burns Vietnam: A Television History The War: A Ken Burns Film Baseball: A Film by Ken Burns The Cold War Prohibition: A Film by Ken Burns & Lynn Novick Victory at Sea The West: A Film by Stephen Ives A Film by Ken Burns: The Roosevelts: An Intimate History Empire of Dreams: The Making of the  Star Wars  Trilogy The Vietnam War: A Film by Ken Burns & Lynn Novick The Central Park Five: A Film by Ken Burns The American Experience: Battle of the Bulge

After one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited.  – Section One, Amendment 18 to the Constitution of the United States On October 3, 2011, the 300 or so member stations of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) aired A Nation of Drunkards, the first of three parts of Prohibition: A Film by Ken Burns & Lynn Novick. Written by Burns' long-time collaborator Geoffrey C. Ward and produced by Sarah Botstein, Lynn Novick, and Ken Burns, the series explored one of the most controversial - and least effective - experiments in social re-engineering in American history. Nothing so needs reforming as other people's habits. Fanatics will never learn that, though it be written in letters of gold across the sky

Inning 4: A National Heirloom (1920-1930) Written by: Geoffrey C. Ward & Ken Burns Directed by: Ken Burns The 1920s begin with America trying to recover from World War I and baseball trying to recover from the scandal of the 1919 World Series. America finds relief in the boom market and the Jazz Age. Baseball finds its own boom market in a player with a Jazz Age personality; a troubled youth from a Baltimore reformatory school who can hit the ball farther than anyone. George Herman "Babe" Ruth is one of the best pitchers in baseball. But he loves to hit even more. In 1919, he hits 29 homers for the Red Sox, more than any player has ever hit in a single season. On September 21, 1994, at the height of a long strike by Major League Baseball players, 300 member stations of America's Public Broadcasting System aired A National Heirloom (1920-1930), the fourth "inning" of  Baseball: A Film by Ken Burns. For many baseball-deprived fans, this

Inning 3: The Faith of Fifty Million People (1910-1920) Written by: Geoffrey C. Ward & Ken Burns Directed by: Ken Burns Before and after World War I, a steady stream of immigrants lands on the shores of America. They want instantly to become American. To pursue the American dream. To play the American game.  But even as thousands of Americans pick up a ball for the first time, even as the country endures a world war, baseball is trying to endure a decade that includes the meanest, vilest, angriest player ever to step onto a field and a scandal that almost destroys the game. - from the DVD episode guide blurb On September 20, 1994, the 300 or so member stations of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) premiered The Faith of Fifty Million People, the third "inning" of the nine-part series titled Baseball: A Film by Ken Burns.  Co-written by Burns and historian Geoffrey C. Ward, this documentary examines the history of the sport of baseball and its i