Greater Harrisburg's Community Magazine

Saluting America’s Storyteller: First-ever Ken Burns film festival set to premier in Gettysburg

Ken Burns
Photo by Evan Barlow

For more than 40 years, millions of people have enjoyed filmmaker Ken Burns’ well-regarded documentaries, all on the small screen.

Burns will premiere his work in a theater for the first time in historic Gettysburg this winter. Gettysburg College’s Majestic Theater will host the first-ever Ken Burns film festival, running from Feb. 10 to 12.

“He has never given permission for someone to hold a festival celebrating his work and see his films on the big screen for the first time,” said Jeffrey Gabel, founding executive director of the Majestic Theater. “It’s a singular sensation.”

Gabel and festival Director Jake Boritt expect Burns’ arrival to be the second time he’s given an economic boost to the site of the 1863 battle that changed the course of the Civil War. Tourism rose in the 1990s after Burns’ “The Civil War” premiered on PBS.

“It is an extraordinary gift to the community that he is coming, will make these presentations,” Gabel said. “The vast majority of the films that he is showing are free with a reservation.”

Boritt, a filmmaker himself and Gettysburg native, contacted Burns in 2020 asking him to promote the Adams County Historical Society’s capital campaign for a new museum. The 29,000-square-foot facility, currently being built on Biglerville Road, includes a museum, café, reading room, library, climate-controlled archive storage, event space and conference room.

“I was incredibly impressed by the fact he was willing to make a generous and heartfelt endorsement and did it in less than 36 hours,” Historical Society Executive Director Andrew Dalton said. “Some people try really hard to say ‘no,’ some people try really hard to say ‘yes.’ It is clear from all of this that Ken wants to help whenever he can.”

While he had Burns’ attention, Boritt decided to push his luck and suggested he host a festival of his work in Gettysburg. The answer floored him.

“Love it, lots to work out,” Burns wrote Boritt.

Lawyers helped The Majestic receive rights to show the films and Boritt, Gabel and others began planning in earnest. Burns had one free weekend, which just happened to match up with the completion of Dalton’s museum.

“Who Are We? A Festival Celebrating the Films of Ken Burns” opens Friday, Feb. 10, with a showing of Burns’ first film, “Brooklyn Bridge” (1981). Episode five of “The Civil War,” which focuses on the Battle of Gettysburg, will close the evening and include a post-screening discussion with Burns and Boritt.

The next two days will feature more than 21 hours of Burns’ work on the Majestic’s three screens, including “The Roosevelts: An Intimate History,” “The Central Park Five” and “Country Music.” Breakout sessions on writing, music and cinematography will also be offered.

Special guests scheduled to attend include longtime Burns collaborators. They include writer Geoffrey Ward, producer Sarah Botstein, and cinematographer Allen Moore, as well as musicians Jay Ungar, Molly Mason and Jacqueline Schwab and exonerated Central Park Five member Kevin Richardson. Tracie Potts and Susan Eisenhower of Gettysburg College’s Eisenhower Institute also will offer their perspective during the festival.

Boritt believes that Burns’ work is especially important as national politics continues to divide American culture. Burns has an uncanny ability to drill down and tell people’s stories to show they are much more than political or war figures.

“If we can relate to another person’s story, we can see them in a positive light,” Boritt said. “I think we are still struggling with some of these political, societal and racial tensions that Ken confronts head-on in his work.”

The festival is also important to Gettysburg. Tourism and agriculture are Adams County’s top industries and neither are traditionally active during the cold days of February.

“Festival attendees are not only coming here to the Majestic, but they are going to visit the rest of downtown,” said Jessica Rudy, Majestic’s director of marketing.

As of early November, people from 24 states already had purchased tickets.

“He is lifting a community that is a sacred American place,” Dalton said.


“Who Are We? A Festival Celebrating the Films of Ken Burns” takes place Feb. 10 to 12 at the Majestic Theater, 25 Carlisle St., Gettysburg. For more information,  call 717-337-8200 or visit
www.gettysburgmajestic.org.

 

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