The event includes a preview of Burns’s new documentary The Dust Bowl and an onstage interview with Michael Krasny.
KQED, the public media organization that serves Northern California, hosts an event with acclaimed documentarian Ken Burns to celebrate the premiere of his new film The Dust Bowl on PBS nationwide. Don’t miss a chance to see a sneak preview of the new two-part documentary and an onstage interview of the filmmaker with Michael Krasny, the beloved host of KQED Public Radio’s Forum. “An Evening With Ken Burns” takes place Thursday, November 8, at 7:30pm at the Castro Theatre (429 Castro Street , San Francisco) Tickets are $18 ($12 for KQED members and students) and are available at cityboxoffice.com and 415.392.4400.
The Dust Bowl surveys the causes of the worst manmade ecological disaster in U.S. history: the catastrophic dust storms of the 1930s. Vivid interviews with survivors combined with dramatic photographs and seldom seen movie footage bring to life stories of incredible human suffering and equally incredible human perseverance. The Dust Bowl premieres Sunday, November 18, and Monday, November 19, at 8pm on KQED 9.
This special event is presented by KQED in partnership with Charles River Associates, Subaru and Kraw Law Group.
ABOUT KEN BURNS
Ken Burns has been making films for more than 30 years. Since the Academy Award-nominated Brooklyn Bridge in 1981, Ken has gone on to direct and produce some of the most acclaimed historical documentaries ever made. The late historian Stephen Ambrose said of his films, “More Americans get their history from Ken Burns than any other source.” A December 2002 poll conducted by Real Screen Magazine listed The Civil War as second only to Robert Flaherty’s Nanook of the North as the “most influential documentary of all time,” and named Ken Burns and Robert Flaherty as the “most influential documentary makers” of all time.
Burns was also the director, producer, co-writer, chief cinematographer, music director and executive producer of the landmark television series The Civil War. This film was the highest- rated series in the history of American public television and attracted an audience of 40 million during its premiere in September 1990. The New York Times called it a masterpiece and said that Ken Burns “takes his place as the most accomplished documentary filmmaker of his generation.” Tom Shales of The Washington Post said, “This is not just good television, nor even just great television. This is heroic television." The columnist George Will said, “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.” The series has been honored with more than 40 major film and television awards, including two Emmy Awards, two Grammy Awards, Producer of the Year Award from the Producer’s Guild, People’s Choice Award, Peabody Award, duPont-Columbia Award, D.W. Griffith Award and the $50,000 Lincoln Prize, among dozens of others.
ABOUT MICHAEL KRASNY
Michael Krasny, Ph.D., is host of KQED's award-winning Forum, a news and public affairs program that concentrates on the arts, culture, health, business and technology. Forum is one of KQED's most-popular programs and the nation's most-listened-to locally produced public radio talk show.
Before coming to KQED Public Radio in 1993, Dr. Krasny hosted a night-time talk program for KGO Radio and co-anchored the weekly KGO television program Nightfocus. He hosted Bay TV's Take Issue, a nightly news analysis show, programs for KQED Public Television, KRON television and NPR, and did news commentary for KTVU television. He has also served as host of NPR's Talk of the Nation.
Since 1970, he has been a professor of English at San Francisco State University and has taught at Stanford University and University of California, San Francisco. He is the author of “Spiritual Envy: An Agnostic's Quest,” being published in fall 2010, and "Off Mike: A Memoir of Talk Radio and Literary Life," coauthor of the textbook "Sound Ideas," and creator of the DVD presentation Masterpieces of Short Fiction. He is a widely published scholar and literary critic, a fiction writer and a guest and frequent interviewer on the City Arts & Lectures stage. He has worked widely as a facilitator and host in the corporate sector and as moderator for a host of major nonprofit events.
Dr. Krasny has interviewed many of the leading newsmakers and cultural icons of our time, including former President Jimmy Carter, Cesar Chavez, Noam Chomsky, Hilary Rodham Clinton, Francis Ford Coppola, Don DeLillo, Newt Gingrich, Vice President Al Gore, Norman Mailer, Toni Morrison, President Barack Obama, Rosa Parks, Nancy Pelosi, Robert Redford, Philip Roth, Salman Rushdie, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, John Updike, and countless others. He is the recipient of many awards and honors, including The S.Y. Agnon Gold Medal for Intellectual Distinction, The Eugene Block Award for Human Rights Journalism, The Inclusiveness in Media Award from The National Conference for Community and Justice, and a Koret Foundation Fellowship. He has also been named best talk show host by Focus magazine, a number of Bay Area newspapers, The San Francisco Publicity Club, and Citysearch.
Dr. Krasny received his B.A. (cum laude) and M.A. degrees from Ohio University, where he is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and his Ph.D. degree from The University of Wisconsin.