{"id":323319,"date":"2021-08-12T20:44:25","date_gmt":"2021-08-12T17:44:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/muhammad-ali-docuseries-diversity-criticism-addressed-by-ken-burns-film\/"},"modified":"2021-08-12T20:44:25","modified_gmt":"2021-08-12T17:44:25","slug":"muhammad-ali-docuseries-diversity-criticism-addressed-by-ken-burns-film","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/muhammad-ali-docuseries-diversity-criticism-addressed-by-ken-burns-film\/","title":{"rendered":"#Muhammad Ali Docuseries Diversity Criticism Addressed by Ken Burns \u2013 \/Film"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_85 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a3fa879168bd\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a3fa879168bd\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/muhammad-ali-docuseries-diversity-criticism-addressed-by-ken-burns-film\/#Who_Gets_To_Tell_Whose_Stories\" >Who Gets To Tell Whose Stories?<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<p>&#8220;<strong>#Muhammad Ali Docu<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/watch-movies-tv-seriess\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"8\" title=\"Watch Movies &amp; TV Series\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">series<\/a> Diversity Criticism Addressed by Ken Burns \u2013 \/Film<\/strong>&#8221;<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>                            <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-694347 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/d13ezvd6yrslxm.cloudfront.net\/wp\/wp-content\/images\/Muhammad-Ali-PBS-e1628781745178-700x391.jpg\" alt=\"muhammad ali docuseries diversity\" width=\"700\" height=\"391\" srcset=\"https:\/\/d13ezvd6yrslxm.cloudfront.net\/wp\/wp-content\/images\/Muhammad-Ali-PBS-e1628781745178-700x391.jpg 700w, https:\/\/d13ezvd6yrslxm.cloudfront.net\/wp\/wp-content\/images\/Muhammad-Ali-PBS-e1628781745178-360x201.jpg 360w, https:\/\/d13ezvd6yrslxm.cloudfront.net\/wp\/wp-content\/images\/Muhammad-Ali-PBS-e1628781745178-768x430.jpg 768w, https:\/\/d13ezvd6yrslxm.cloudfront.net\/wp\/wp-content\/images\/Muhammad-Ali-PBS-e1628781745178.jpg 1046w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Ken Burns<\/strong> has made a name for himself as one of the most celebrated, award-winning documentarians of our time. I can say with great affection that I\u2019ve fallen asleep to many a late-night <strong>PBS<\/strong> documentary special as he tackled such endearing \u201cDad topics\u201d like the Civil War or baseball. For his latest project, Burns has his eyes set on legendary boxer Muhammad Ali \u2026 but it\u2019s not without a certain amount of controversy, as well.<\/p>\n<p>PBS held a recent presentation, which included some choice insights on Burns\u2019 currently in-production <em><strong>Muhammad Ali<\/strong><\/em>. The documentary series will consist of four parts and eight total hours, airing consecutively on four nights. Burns directed the series with his daughter <strong>Sarah Burns<\/strong> and son-in-law\u00a0<strong>David McMahon<\/strong>, which helps explain where some of the ill feelings towards this particular project stem from. Along those lines, Burns describes the docuseries as a unique and \u201ccomprehensive\u201d take on the iconic public figure.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><!-- SlashFilm_300x250_In_Post -->\u201cWe were interested in doing a pretty comprehensive look at his life, from his birth in segregated Louisville, Kentucky in the early \u201940s to his death by Parkinson\u2019s not too long ago, in 2016. That meant involving ourselves in lots of other intersections of this extraordinary life, in politics, in war, in civil rights, in faith and religion, in the definition of Blackness in the country. All sorts of very complicated subjects\u2014his personal life, the four wives.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Yeah, can you see where things <em>might<\/em> start to get a little messy here?<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-694516 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/d13ezvd6yrslxm.cloudfront.net\/wp\/wp-content\/images\/muhammad-ali-pbs-otu-img-700x441.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"441\" srcset=\"https:\/\/d13ezvd6yrslxm.cloudfront.net\/wp\/wp-content\/images\/muhammad-ali-pbs-otu-img-700x441.jpg 700w, https:\/\/d13ezvd6yrslxm.cloudfront.net\/wp\/wp-content\/images\/muhammad-ali-pbs-otu-img-360x227.jpg 360w, https:\/\/d13ezvd6yrslxm.cloudfront.net\/wp\/wp-content\/images\/muhammad-ali-pbs-otu-img-768x484.jpg 768w, https:\/\/d13ezvd6yrslxm.cloudfront.net\/wp\/wp-content\/images\/muhammad-ali-pbs-otu-img.jpg 1440w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Who_Gets_To_Tell_Whose_Stories\"><\/span>Who Gets To Tell Whose Stories?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>For some context, <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2021\/03\/31\/982706363\/filmmakers-call-out-pbs-for-a-lack-of-diversity-over-reliance-on-ken-burns\">PBS came under fire<\/a> earlier this year over allegations that prioritizing their relationship with Burns to such an extent (according to PBS\u2019 own website, their collaboration with Burns began over 40 years ago and his exclusive deal with them lasts at least through 2022) leaves no room to diversify the stable of other talent that PBS chooses to work with. The open letter, signed by well over 100 other documentary filmmakers (and well worth reading in its entirety), acknowledges that the company has made an effort to seek out new filmmakers of color while also pointing out the troublesome implication that there are no well-established individuals to work with.<\/p>\n<p>In response to that prior complaint, Burns went out of his way to note that despite the three white directors on the <em>Muhammad Ali<\/em> series (himself included), \u201c40-percent of the nucleus of our crew\u2014producers, editors, assistant editors, directors, writers, are people of color; 53-percent are women.\u201d While referencing PBS\u2019 initiatives to find diverse voices, Burns goes on to say:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><!-- SlashFilm_300x250_In_Post_2 -->\u201cI certainly <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>laud PBS for the steps they\u2019ve taken, for the guidelines. A lot of it puts the onus back onto us filmmakers and we readily accept it. We will take this on and we will figure out how to make it right and do a better job. I personally commit to that. I know my colleagues will do that. I know my network has already done that and put their money where their mouth has been\u2026 This is a really good way forward for a network that was always representing, from the very beginning, for the last 50 years, always representing\u2026 always asking for a multiplicity of perspectives.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve never said that [<em>Muhammad Ali<\/em>] was definitive and I think the point is that we want to have many, many points of view. I\u2019m in a business of history and that includes everyone. And I have, throughout my professional life, tried to tell the story of this country in an inclusive way and that means talking about race and trying to tell stories from multiple perspectives\u2026 But I do not accept that only people of a particular background can tell certain stories about our past, particularly in the United States of America.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Nothing Burns says here is wrong, per say, though it does point to a disconcerting interpretation of the term, \u201cinclusivity.\u201d Burns is a wildly talented, successful storyteller with the ability to lend a human touch to any subject he approaches. At the same time, a massive Burns-led Muhammed Ali production necessarily means that any filmmaker of color who wanted to retell that story through their own lens would have a much lower chance to do so. There\u2019s a well-established history of filmmakers choosing to become the author of stories far outside their own personal, lived-in experiences to <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thedailybeast.com\/kathryn-bigelows-detroit-when-white-directors-tell-black-stories\">extremely uneven results<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>None of this is to condemn Ken Burns or his upcoming docuseries outright, but it\u2019s definitely worth thinking about. <em>Muhammed Ali<\/em> premieres on PBS on\u00a0<strong>September 19, 2021.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>                            <strong>Cool Posts From Around the Web:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>                            <!-- \/post -->\n                        <\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more Like this articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/social-media\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Social Media category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.slashfilm.com\/director-ken-burns-promotes-muhammad-ali-docuseries-responds-to-criticism-of-diversity\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;#Muhammad Ali Docuseries Diversity Criticism Addressed by Ken Burns \u2013 \/Film&#8221; Ken Burns has made a name for himself as one of the most celebrated, award-winning documentarians of our time. I can say with great affection that I\u2019ve fallen asleep to many a late-night PBS documentary special as he tackled such endearing \u201cDad topics\u201d like&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":323320,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/d13ezvd6yrslxm.cloudfront.net\/wp\/wp-content\/images\/Muhammad-Ali-PBS-e1628781745178.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[1361,115],"class_list":["post-323319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-mediaa","tag-movies","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}