Last Thursday, I attended the WOSU presentation "Prohibition: An Evening with Ken Burns". At first, I didn't know what to expect. I had never seen any of Ken Burn's work before and I was a little leery of watching a historical documentary outside of a required classroom; however, my curiosity go the better of me, and it paid off.
Ken Burns and Lynn Novick were gracious enough to share some excerpts and clips from their upcoming PBS film series: Prohibition. The group of clips that I found to be the most interesting were from the third and final episode. The last episode was about how hypocritical Americans became after prohibition; America, a theoretically "dry" country had become the largest importer of cocktail shakers in the world by the end of prohibition.
Prohibition goes behind the scenes and explains that the banning of alcohol was not just a simple yes or no vote, but; rather, a fire fed by religious differences, racism, expected gender roles, and politics. Ken Burns and Lynn Novick took period videos, propaganda, music, and documents and created a clever and informational documentary describing a very influential event in America's History.
Overall, I am glad that I went. I would highly encourage all of you to tune into Prohibition on October 2nd - October 4th.
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I attended the Evening with Ken Burns event with my friend Emmanuel, who also lives in Haverfield House but is not a scholar. His friend had an extra ticket, and I wanted to go (the topic was interesting, besides the fact that Emmanuel has a badass British accent) and so off we went.
ReplyDeleteThe bits of video he showed were very interesting: not only did the documentary cover Prohibition itself, but it also worked to give viewers a context of what was going on before the law was even proposed. That dedication to providing a background stayed with the program throughout, showing us the social, political, economic, religious, as well as personal effects of Prohibition. I, personally, had no idea of the brutality of the 1928 presidential election, or how much it hinged on Prohibition. Things like mudslinging, cross-burnings, riots, federal government raids, and church sermons all had a roll in deciding who would become our 31st president.
In all, I thought the Ken Burns thing was very interesting, and I plan to watch the full documentary when it comes out on PBS. I hope you all do the same!
I was also in attendance for the Ken Burns event; I slipped in at the last minute to grab a seat at the top of the Mershon (which is badass), thereby seeing Ken Burns and gang only as specks on the stage. Ken's opening was, actually, worthwhile to listen to---a lengthy Lincoln quote does wonders. Other than this, Mr. Burns did not seem particularly interested in being at Ohio State. His video, however, was funny, interesting and informative; I found the quotes from those who lived through prohibition to be the most revealing. The debut of the show on PBS will be worth watching. The "conversation" between the two directors, the mediator, and the two University professors was a dud, as only Ken and his partner, Lynn, spoke or were asked questions.
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