Ken Burns, documentary filmmaker extraordinaire: a god to public-television stations for the exposure, ratings, and viewer contributions his name can bring; a godsend to schoolchildren for his films’ ability to eat up a week of history classes. The man behind the miniseries The Civil War, Baseball, and Jazz is back this fall with The War, a 14-hour seven-parter on World War II that debuts September 23rd on PBS.
In anticipation, Memphis public-broadcast station WKNO is presenting “An Evening with Ken Burns,” a preview party for The War at the Germantown Performing Arts Centre, on Wednesday, August 8th, at 7 p.m. The man of the evening will screen an hour of his new film and discuss it, and Davis-Kidd Booksellers also will be in attendance with Burns’ books and DVDs available for purchase. (Buyers get autographed bookplates with their 
goods.)
The War looks at the war through the eyes of citizen soldiers and home-front heroes from four geographically far-flung American cities: Waterbury, Connecticut; Mobile, Alabama; Sacramento, California; and Luverne, Minnesota.
No word yet if the documentary will feature slow zooms and pans across still photographs. Ken willing, it will.
“An Evening with Ken Burns” at GPAC, Wednesday, August 8th, 7 p.m. $10 WKNO member/$15 nonmembers. Call 751-7500 for tickets.
