Ken Burns

Ken Burns came to the summer TV press tour Sunday afternoon bearing clips from his latest PBS documentary, “The Dust Bowl,”  a four-hour, two-part film that will air in mid-November. On a panel that also included writer and producer Dayton Duncan and Dust Bowl survivor Cal Crabill, Burns called the event that led to an exodus from Oklahoma  to California during the 1930s “the greatest manmade ecological disaster in U.S. history.” “This is a cautionary tale,” said Burns of the disaster, which coincided with much of the Great Depression, adding the documentary is not “inspirational.” In one of the clips, a survivor talked about the huge clouds of dust that would blacken the skies for as long as 24 hours.

NEW YORK - They were five men - boys, really - accused of a violent rape. They were prosecuted aggressively by district attorneys and vilified by a tabloid press, then sent to prison for as many as 13 years. In 1989, the case of the Central Park Five, as the attack on a 28-year-old white investment banker in uptown Manhattan has come to be known, roiled the country, touching on race and class and fears about crime. But the defendants - all black or Latino, none older than 16 - didn't commit the attack on the Central Park jogger.

Ken Burns, Alex Gibney and Julien Temple headline the Toronto International Film Festival's documentary lineup this year, a program that also features work by Marina Zenovich and Matthew Cooke. Fans of nonfiction film can take in movies on everything from wrongful convictions in the U.S. justice system to Middle East relations and the continuing saga of Roman Polanski. Gibney, the Oscar-winning director best known for his U.S. military torture expose "Taxi to the Dark Side," focuses his attention on the child abuse scandal and cover-up within the Roman Catholic Church in his new film, "Mea Maxima Culpa.

What do Manhattan and Miami have in common with ancient Pompeii? They are doomed places where the residents cannot imagine that the good times will ever end. Superstorm Sandy got our attention -- like Mike Tyson walking into the house and punching our dog. And the certainty that more freakish, savage storms will pay a visit has made it tough for global-warming deniers to keep denying. But denial is not as tough to reckon with as obliviousness. Being oblivious to approaching doom is a consistent human trait.

Ken Burns, public television's signature chronicler of great American moments, pastimes and inventions, has turned his Ken Burns Effect loose upon "The Dust Bowl. " One would say it was almost inevitable that two things so huge were bound to meet. The four-hour film premieres Sunday and Monday on PBS and tells the story of the great drought that befell the Southern plains in the 1930s and the poor farming practices that made it into something far worse. Though it has the pokey pace and flat affect of his other films - for Burns, history is elegy - it is also one of his best works: more tightly focused than usual in time and place, with a clear shape, dramatic arcs and a conclusion that is at once cautionary and moving, topical and timeless.

Ken Burns stands behind home plate at Dodger Stadium, unsuccessfully trying to corral his preternatural boyish grin. He plucks at the webbing of his Kirby Puckett-endorsed mitt before strolling to the pitcher's mound. Toeing the rubber, the 57-year-old Burns hurls a well-aimed pitch to Dodgers catcher Brad Ausmus, then leaves the field to polite applause. "That was a strike all the way," he says, beaming, "and [Dodgers manager] Joe Torre gave me the thumbs-up. " The evening has just begun for the hardest-working documentary filmmaker this side of Michael Moore.

Ken Burns, the Emmy-winning filmmaker of "The Civil War," turns his eye on a little-known chapter in American history in "Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio." Based on Tom Lewis' book, "Empire of the Air" examines the dark, tragic backstage drama in the lives of three remarkable men who were radio pioneers--David Sarnoff, Lee de Forest and Edwin Howard Armstrong. De Forest, who called himself the "Father of Radio," invented the radio tube but didn't know how it worked.

Filmmaker Ken Burns stars in a five-day Civil War tour of Washington, D.C., designed to capture the story he told in his documentary about the war and its aftermath. For the second year, Connecticut-based Tauck travel company teamed with Burns to create an itinerary that includes private access to some of the capital's biggest landmarks. The Civil War saga is told through talks and lectures with experts like Burns, who will give a keynote speech and chat with guests during an after-hours event at the National Archives, and Harold Holzer, a Civil War historian who will speak at an evening event at the National Building Museum.

There's a holiday in December that comes way before Hanukkah or Christmas and might be a whole lot  jollier: It's Repeal Day, and it's Monday. As Ken Burns reminds us in his documentary "Prohibition," there was a time in this country when a glass of wine or a pint of beer could land you in the slammer. It was against the law, specifically the 18th Amendment. Bootleggers, speakeasies and all sorts of black-market goings-ons defined the Prohibition era from January 1920 to Dec. 5, 1933, when the law was repealed.

Ken Burns recalled a conversation in which it was suggested to him that "my whole work was an attempt to make people long gone come back alive." Losing his mother to breast cancer when he was 11, he told San Francisco's public television magazine "Focus," inspired not just his love of the past, but also his sense of direction and obsessive work style. Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1953 to professional parents, Burns and his brother Ric moved frequently while growing up.

The Expendables 2 Lionsgate, $29.95; Blu-ray, $39.99 Available on VOD beginning Nov. 20 Doubling down on what worked just fine two years ago, this sequel brings back Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger, and adds Chuck Norris and Jean-Claude Van Damme to the roster of action veterans paying homage to the big, dumb guns-and-bombs flicks of the 1980s. The plot this time has the team of mercenaries losing one of their own and exacting revenge, but "plot" isn't really the point of either of the "Expendables" movies; the idea is to show buff, beloved old stars, swapping quips and bullets while running in slow-motion ahead of explosions.

Ken Burns, public television's signature chronicler of great American moments, pastimes and inventions, has turned his Ken Burns Effect loose upon "The Dust Bowl. " One would say it was almost inevitable that two things so huge were bound to meet. The four-hour film premieres Sunday and Monday on PBS and tells the story of the great drought that befell the Southern plains in the 1930s and the poor farming practices that made it into something far worse. Though it has the pokey pace and flat affect of his other films - for Burns, history is elegy - it is also one of his best works: more tightly focused than usual in time and place, with a clear shape, dramatic arcs and a conclusion that is at once cautionary and moving, topical and timeless.

In a sense, Ken Burns' new documentary is the photographic negative of the one he delivered in 2009: Instead of swooning full-color shots of azure lakes and soaring mountains, his new film is made of images that could come from the dark side of the moon. In some of them, the parched land tells its own silent story. In others, we see bleached-out shots of people, in overalls, scowling. Or children in gas masks, looking like humanoid visitors from another world. And while "The National Parks," from 2009, recounted the tale of triumph, his new film is not nearly so life-affirming.

Click here to download TV listings for the week Nov. 18 - 24 in PDF format This week's TV Movies     SUNDAY There's No Doubt you'll be in the Pink when they Usher you into the "The 40th Anniversary American Music Awards. " Taylor Swift and Nicki Minaj are just two of the other scheduled performers we couldn't work into that sentence. (KABC, 8 p.m.) Hurricane Katrina and Superstorm Sandy were bad … but nothing when compared to "The Dust Bowl" of the 1930s.

Click here to download TV listings for the week Nov. 4 - 10 in PDF format This week's TV Movies     CBS This Morning Filmmaker Ken Burns; Sam Sifton. (N) 7 a.m. KCBS Today Newt Gingrich; Susan Boyle; Will Geist; Curtis Stone. (N) 7 a.m. KNBC KTLA Morning News (N) 7 a.m. KTLA Good Morning America Jake Tapper; Marissa Jaret Winokur; Rachael Ray; Les Gold and Ashley Broad. (N) 7 a.m. KABC Good Day L.A . 7 a.m. KTTV Live With Kelly and Michael Robert De Niro; Isla Fisher; DJ Connor Cruise.

Ken Burns, Alex Gibney and Julien Temple headline the Toronto International Film Festival's documentary lineup this year, a program that also features work by Marina Zenovich and Matthew Cooke. Fans of nonfiction film can take in movies on everything from wrongful convictions in the U.S. justice system to Middle East relations and the continuing saga of Roman Polanski. Gibney, the Oscar-winning director best known for his U.S. military torture expose "Taxi to the Dark Side," focuses his attention on the child abuse scandal and cover-up within the Roman Catholic Church in his new film, "Mea Maxima Culpa.

In a sense, Ken Burns' new documentary is the photographic negative of the one he delivered in 2009: Instead of swooning full-color shots of azure lakes and soaring mountains, his new film is made of images that could come from the dark side of the moon. In some of them, the parched land tells its own silent story. In others, we see bleached-out shots of people, in overalls, scowling. Or children in gas masks, looking like humanoid visitors from another world. And while "The National Parks," from 2009, recounted the tale of triumph, his new film is not nearly so life-affirming.

One of the most important long-range accomplishments of the Ken Burns "Jazz" documentary, which continues into next week, may well be the CD collections that have been released as audio companions. The official collection--"Ken Burns' Jazz"--is a five-CD boxed set, and there is also a single CD, personally selected by Burns. More expansively, there are 22 albums devoted to individual artists, 11 from Verve, 11 more from Columbia Legacy.

Ken Burns came to the summer TV press tour Sunday afternoon bearing clips from his latest PBS documentary, “The Dust Bowl,”  a four-hour, two-part film that will air in mid-November. On a panel that also included writer and producer Dayton Duncan and Dust Bowl survivor Cal Crabill, Burns called the event that led to an exodus from Oklahoma  to California during the 1930s “the greatest manmade ecological disaster in U.S. history.” “This is a cautionary tale,” said Burns of the disaster, which coincided with much of the Great Depression, adding the documentary is not “inspirational.” In one of the clips, a survivor talked about the huge clouds of dust that would blacken the skies for as long as 24 hours.

Filmmaker Ken Burns stars in a five-day Civil War tour of Washington, D.C., designed to capture the story he told in his documentary about the war and its aftermath. For the second year, Connecticut-based Tauck travel company teamed with Burns to create an itinerary that includes private access to some of the capital's biggest landmarks. The Civil War saga is told through talks and lectures with experts like Burns, who will give a keynote speech and chat with guests during an after-hours event at the National Archives, and Harold Holzer, a Civil War historian who will speak at an evening event at the National Building Museum.