Ken Burns ≠ Michael Moore
There are two documentary filmmakers in the news right now, but they couldn’t be less similar. Ken Burns, best known for his Civil War series, just finished up his latest series, a 6-part, 12-hour piece called The National Parks. The final episode has been airing this week, but you can probably catch all of them again at some point on PBS.
Burns is the guy with the bad haircut and beard whose topics focus on enlightening the public about the history of major events and traditions.1 On the flipside is Michael Moore, documentary filmmaker often making headlines for the odd combination of blatant biases contained in his documentaries. Moore is the heavy guy with a beard and usually wearing a baseball cap.
In his defense, Moore doesn’t try to hide behind a veil of unbiased fact reporting. He picks a subject he is passionate about, attacks one side of it, and turns it into a feature film. While Burns is a fixture on PBS television, Moore’s films are released in theaters and involve high profile topics rather than historical subjects. Moore’s movie in theaters now is called Capitalism: A Love Story, but make no mistake – it’s not Moore who’s in love with capitalism.
Moore’s claim to fame was the film Roger & Me, released 20 years ago, in which Moore pointed out problems with General Motors and how the company hurt his hometown of Flint, Michigan. Moore has chosen gun control, 9/11, and health care as topics in recent films, so you know he’s not afraid of controversy.
If you love almost over-the-top in-depth coverage of a single topic, tune in to PBS and catch anything by Ken Burns. If you are interested in hot button topics and love to argue and debate, catch a Michael Moore film and find some friends who hate him. Either way, you’ll find out that documentaries don’t have to be boring.
Read on:
- baseball, jazz, WWII, and the Statue of Liberty to name a few ↩
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