UpDate - Vol. 12, No. 19, Page 1
February 11, 1993
Award-winning filmmaker to speak at Commencement speaker

     Filmmaker Ken Burns, creator of the award-winning documentary The
Civil War, will address the graduates and their families and friends at the
University of Delaware's 144th Commencement exercises May 29 in Delaware
Stadium. Burns will receive the honorary doctor of humane letters degree at
the ceremony.
     Burns has a connection to the University. He spent several years in
Newark as a child, when his father taught in the University's anthropology
department. Last year, he visited the campus and gave a talk on his
experiences in making The Civil War.
     In the business of making documentaries for 15 years, Burns has won
more than 40 major film and television awards for the 11-hour, nine-part
series, The Civil War, for which he was filmmaker/director, producer,
co-writer, chief cinematographer, music director and executive producer.
Five and half years in the making, it was the highest rated series in the
history of American public television, attracting 40 million viewers during
its premiere in September 1990. Since then, it has been repeated several
times and shown around the world.
     Burns was one of the top vote-getters for Commencement speaker in a
poll of graduating seniors, according to Robert R. Davis, director of
University relations. A list of possible speakers was compiled by the
senior class officers, and graduating seniors voted on ballots printed in
The Review, the student newspaper. Final selection is made from among the
candidates getting the most votes, depending on availability, Davis said.
     Among Burns' many honors for The Civil War are two Emmy Awards, two
Grammy Awards, the Producer of the Year Award from the Producer's Guild,
Peabody Award, Du-Pont/Columbia Award, D.W. Griffith's Award and the
$50,000 Lincoln Prize.
     Critics were unanimous in their praise of the work. A New York Times
writer called Burns "the most accomplished documentary filmmaker of his
generation," and a critic in the Washington Post wrote, "This is not just
good television, nor even just great television. This is heroic
television." Columnist George Will wrote, "If better use has ever been made
of television, I have not seen it and do not expect to see better until Ken
Burns turns his prodigious talents to his next project."
     Burns' earlier documentaries include Brooklyn Bridge, which was
nominated for an Academy Award; The Shakers: Hands to Work, Hearts to God;
The Statue of Liberty, also nominated for an Academy Award; Huey Long; The
Congress: The History and Promise of Representative Government; Thomas Hart
Benton; and most recently, Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio.
     He is currently producing and directing a series entitled Baseball, a
social history of the country focusing on its national pastime, and is
serving as executive producer on a series on the history on the American
West.
     A native of New Hampshire, Burns received his bachelor's degree in
film studies and design at Hampshire College in Amherst, Mass., where he
now serves as a trustee.