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Ken Burns tar for seg Forbudstida
Datum: 2011-01-03

USAs ledende dokumentarfilmskaper, Ken Burns (opphavsmannen til »The Ken Burns effect, digital zooming av stilbilder), kommer i løpet av 2011 til å vise dokumentarfilmen «Prohibition», om den amerikanske forbudstida (1920-1933). En epoke som også ligger til grunn for HBO-serien «Boardwalk Empire».

Burns filmer har et spesielt grep på et gigantisk amerikansk publikum og visningene på såkalte PBS-stasjoner følges av titalls millioner.

De siste årene har Burns sendt fra seg storseriene «The War» (om andre verdenskrig) og «The National Parks/ America´s Best Idea». I høst kom «Baseball/ The Tenth Inning», en oppdatering av 1994-serien «Baseball».
Burns planlegger videre «The Dust Bowl» for 2012, «The Central park Five» og «The Roosevelts» for 2013.

På slutten av denne saken følger en liste over Burns filmer.

Her er teksten fra produksjonsselskapets hjemmeside vedr. «Prohibition".

Prohibition is a three-part, five-and-a-half-hour documentary film series directed by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick that tells the story of the rise, rule, and fall of the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the entire era it encompassed.

The culmination of nearly a century of activism, Prohibition was intended to improve, even to ennoble, the lives of all Americans, to protect individuals, families, and society at large from the devastating effects of alcohol abuse. But the enshrining of a faith-driven moral code in the Constitution paradoxically caused millions of Americans to rethink their definition of morality. Thugs became celebrities, responsible authority was rendered impotent. Social mores in place for a century were obliterated. Especially among the young, and most especially among young women, liquor consumption rocketed, propelling the rest of the culture with it: skirts shortened. Music heated up. America’s Sweetheart morphed into The Vamp. Prohibition turned law-abiding citizens into criminals, made a mockery of the justice system, caused illicit drinking to seem glamorous and fun, encouraged neighborhood gangs to become national crime syndicates, permitted government officials to bend and sometimes even break the law, and fostered cynicism and hypocrisy that corroded the social contract all across the country. With Prohibition in place, but ineffectively enforced, one observer noted, America had hardly freed itself from the scourge of alcohol abuse – instead, the “drys” had their law, while the “wets” had their liquor.

The story of Prohibition’s rise and fall is a compelling saga that goes far beyond the oft-told tales of gangsters, rum runners, flappers, and speakeasies, to reveal a complicated and divided nation in the throes of momentous transformation. The film raises vital questions that are as relevant today as they were 100 years ago – about means and ends, individual rights and responsibilities, the proper role of government, and finally, who is – and who is not – a real American.

Brooklyn Bridge, in 1981
The Shakers: Hands to Work, Hearts to God, in 1984
The Statue of Liberty, in 1985
Huey Long, in 1985
Congress, in 1988
Thomas Hart Benton, in 1988
The Civil War, in 1990
Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio, in 1991
Baseball, in 1994
The West, in 1996
Thomas Jefferson in 1997
Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery, in 1997
Frank Lloyd Wright, in 1998
Not For Ourselves Alone: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, in 1999
JAZZ, in 2001
Mark Twain, in 2001
Horatio's Drive, in 2003
Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson, in 2004
The War, in 2007
The National Parks/ America´s Best Idea, in 2009
Baseball, The Tenth Inning, in 2010

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