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Ken Burns Wins ‘Central Park Five’ Legal Battle With NYC

By DOMINIC PATTEN | Tuesday February 19, 2013 @ 4:59pm PSTTags: Central Park Five, Ken Burns, Lawsuit

New York City will not be able to look at footage and other material from Ken Burns’ The Central Park Five documentary, a federal judge ruled today. U.S. Magistrate Judge Ronald L. Ellis ruled in favor of Burns’ Florentine Films’ November 2012 motion to quash the city’s efforts to see outtakes, notes and more from the film. “Florentine has established entitlement to the reporter’s privilege” said the judge Tuesday in his 15-page order (read it here) “Defendants have failed to overcome the reporter’s privilege by making a showing that the information they seek pertains to a significant issue and is unavailable from alternative sources,” he added. Burns and fellow filmmakers David McMahon and Sarah Burns’ documentary centers on the wrongful conviction of five youths in 1989 for the heavily reported brutal rape of a jogger in the NYC park. Upon their release, the now-grown men filed a $50 million lawsuit against the city. On October 2nd of last year, the City of New York issued subpoenas against Florentine in an effort to see whether there is material or documentation from the making of the film that could exonerate their officials’ handling of the initial case. “While journalistic privilege under the law is very important, we firmly believe it did not apply here. This film is a one-sided advocacy piece that depicts the plaintiffs’ version of events as undisputed fact. It is our view that we should be able to view the complete interviews, not just those portions that the filmmakers chose to include,” said the City Attorney’s office today after the ruling. City lawyers are considering whether to take a new approach to the matter, their office said Tuesday. IFC Films released Central Park Five theatrically on November 23 and on VOD on December 7.

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HBO In Ring With Playtone And Ken Burns For Miniseries On Fighter Jack Johnson

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Thursday January 24, 2013 @ 6:06pm PSTTags: Gary Goetzman, HBO, Ken Burns, Playtone, Tom Hanks
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: HBO has set Ides Of March screenwriter and playwright Beau Willimon to write Jack Johnson, a miniseries about the life of the first African-American world heavyweight champion. The mini teams Playtone partners Tom Hanks and … Read More »

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Ken Burns Calls NYC Subpoena Over ‘Central Park Five’ Film “Speculative”

By DOMINIC PATTEN | Monday November 12, 2012 @ 3:33pm PSTTags: Central Park Five, Ken Burns

Over a month after the City of New York issued a subpoena against Ken Burns’ upcoming Central Park Five documentary, the filmmaker’s lawyers are formally seeking to quash the city’s efforts. “The City defendants’ sweeping subpoena for nearly all of the video and audio recordings gathered by Florentine Films in its research for the documentary film The Central Park Five is substantially overbroad, premature and fails to overcome the qualified reporter’s privilege that applies to these unpublished, non-confidential newsgathering materials,” said the 27-page memorandum (read it here) filed last week. Burns and fellow filmmakers David McMahon and Sarah Burns’ documentary centers on the wrongful conviction of five youths in 1989 for the heavily reported brutal rape of a jogger in the NYC park. Upon their release, the now-grown men filed a $50 million lawsuit against the city. IFC Films is releasing Central Park Five theatrically on November 23, and the docu will air on PBS early next year; the legal action will not impact distribution plans. Read More »

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Ken Burns Refuses To Hand Over ‘Central Park Five’ Material To NYC

By DOMINIC PATTEN | Wednesday October 3, 2012 @ 12:20pm PDTTags: Central Park Five, Ken Burns

The City of New York issued subpoenas yesterday to Florentine Films to look at footage and other material from the company’s The Central Park Five documentary. Today filmmakers Ken Burns, David McMahon and Sarah Burns firmly said No. The documentary is about the wrongful conviction of five youths in 1989 for a brutal rape. Upon their release, the men filed a $50 million lawsuit against the city. NYC wants to see if there is material or documentation from the making of the film that could exonerate their officials’ actions handling of the initial case back in the late 80s. The film has played at numerous festivals such as Telluride and Toronto. Sundance Select has picked up The Central Park Five for theatrical release. The film is also scheduled to air on PBS. Read the filmmakers’ statement in full below:

“We have long expected the subpoena,” said Ken Burns, Sarah Burns and David McMahon, the film’s directors.  “For the last ten years the City has refused to settle the civil rights lawsuit brought by these young men.  This strikes us as just another effort to delay and deny closure and justice to these five men, each of whom was cleared of guilt even though they served out their full and unjustified terms.

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TCA: PBS’ Ken Burns ‘The Dust Bowl’ Documentary To Air Nov. 18-19

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Sunday July 22, 2012 @ 3:58pm PDTTags: Ken Burns, PBS, TCA, Television Critics Association

Diane Haithman contributes to Deadline’s TV coverage.

When documentarian Ken Burns speaks, everything sounds like poetry. At today’s TCA panel on his latest PBS documentary The Dust Bowl, Burns didn’t say that some of the survivors of the devastating 1930s dust storms that were interviewed for the documentary have died. He said: “We have already lost four of them to the merciless passage of time.” The documentary will air in two episodes November 18-19.

Related: TCA: PBS Sets Ken Burns’ ‘The Roosevelts’ & Pair Of Cuban Missile Crisis Specials
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TCA: PBS Sets Ken Burns’ ‘The Roosevelts’ & Pair Of Cuban Missile Crisis Specials

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Saturday July 21, 2012 @ 9:54am PDTTags: Ken Burns, PBS, TCA, Television Critics Association

Diane Haithman contributes to Deadline’s TV coverage.

PBS is announcing today that The Roosevelts: An Intimate History, a new seven-part documentary series by Ken Burns, will air in 2014. Burns is slated to appear at TCA later in … Read More »

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PBS Fall Schedule: ‘Midwife,’ ‘Dustbowl’ And Politics Showcased On Sundays

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Tuesday May 15, 2012 @ 1:45pm PDTTags: Ken Burns, PBS, Upstairs Downstairs

PBS Fall 2012 SchedulePBS is playing to its strengths — British dramas, Ken Burns documentaries and plenty of political insight — with its just-announced fall schedule. As is custom with the public broadcaster, the emphasis is on Sunday night programming. With the success of Season 2 of Downton Abbey still fresh, PBS will air the UK hit miniseries Call The Midwife, debuting Sunday, September 30. Following Call The Midwife for most of the run is Season 2 of the new Upstairs Downstairs, airing Sundays Oct. 7 to Nov. 11. The latest documentary from Ken Burns, The Dust Bowl, airs Sunday November 18 and Monday November 19. In addition, PBS will repeat its well-received American Masters documentary on Dust Bowl folk hero Woody Guthrie on Thursday, November 16. With the political season heating up, PBS is ramping up its election coverage, once again airing “The Choice,” a politics-focused edition of the long-running Frontline on Tuesday, October 9. The public broadcaster will also air three Presidential debates and one Vice Presidential debate when they’re held in the fall. Read More »

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PBS UK Launches On BSkyB, Virgin Media

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Monday October 31, 2011 @ 10:34pm PDTTags: BSkyB, Ken Burns, PBS Distribution, Virgin Media

The U.S. Public Broadcasting Service, long an importer of British fare, will attempt to return the favor starting Tuesday with the launch of PBS UK, the Wall Street Journal reports. The lineup includes U.S. flagship shows PBS News Hour and Frontline; the science series Nova; the U.S. version of Antiques Roadshow (format imported from Britain); and documentaries from director Ken Burns, whose Prohibition (pictured) will air on Day 1. It’s PBS’ first major foreign foray since the service was founded more than 40 years ago. PBS UK will air on Britain’s two biggest pay-TV platforms, British Sky Broadcasting and Virgin Media. It will be available to about 14 million viewers, roughly half the country’s TV audience. PBS is late to the party because it doesn’t have a lot of money. U.S. commercial networks such as MTV, Nickelodeon, Discovery and CBS have been in the UK for years. “The top priority is to get our content to an audience that I know is interested in the work we produce,” said PBS chief executive Paula Kerger. Read More »

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TCA: Ken Burns Thinks ‘Boardwalk’ Will Be “Huge Hit”: “Americans Love To Watch People Who Get To Kill People Who Piss Them Off”

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Sunday July 31, 2011 @ 6:50pm PDTTags: Boardwalk Empire, Ken Burns, PBS, TCA, Television Critics Association

Ray Richmond is contributing to Deadline’s coverage of TCA.

The panel session closing out PBS’ two-day rollout at TCA — for Ken Burns’ latest historical overview, Prohibition — was notably both preceded by a beer-and-wine dinner and followed by a cocktail party. The elfin but always eloquent Burns admitted during the session that he got into the spirit of the TCA event by having his first drink in “quite some time.” But he suffered no effects from his alcohol when asked his thoughts on the HBO series Boardwalk Empire that deals fictitiously with the same subject matter as his documentary that’s scheduled to premiere on Oct. 2, 3 and 4. And it turns out he’s a fan of the drama that’s produced in part by Martin Scorsese. “(HBO) has another huge hit on their hands in the mode of The Sopranos,” Burns said, “and they’re not that dissimilar. Americans always love to watch people who get to kill people who piss them off…and women who take their clothes off at the drop of a hat. They’ve done their homework. (The show) is very complex and nuanced…We’re always amazed when we’ve done films that fit into the zeitgeist of the moment.” Read More »

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‘Prohibition’, Fall Festival Lead PBS Slate

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Monday May 9, 2011 @ 3:38pm PDTTags: Documentary, Fall Schedule, Ken Burns, PBS

Ken Burns’ latest documentary Prohibition will kick off PBS’ fall season Oct. 2-4, the pubcaster announced today in unveiling its slate of programming, which will include the first-ever PBS Arts Fall Festival that will run into December. Prohibition, which will tell … Read More »

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Latest Ken Burns Doc ‘Vietnam’ In Works

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Monday March 28, 2011 @ 5:21pm PDTTags: Documentary, Ken Burns, PBS

Ken Burns and partner Lynn Novick are producing and directing a documentary film on the Vietnam War, completing a war trilogy that includes their previous PBS efforts The Civil War (1990) and the World War II doc The War (2007). Vietnam … Read More »

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