Ric Burns

One of America’s preeminent documentary filmmakers, Ric Burns has been writing, directing, and producing historical films for over 25 years. Best known for his Emmy Award-winning New York: A Documentary Film, Burns has told the story of America from the Mayflower and the Civil War to 9/11.

A profoundly powerful storyteller whose thought-provoking and deeply poetic films have garnered a devoted following, Burns brings to the stage an overview of America, from the pilgrims and the civil war to the ongoing cultural changes, and a look at our future — from a historical perspective. With short film clips interspersed throughout his lectures, Burns also shares the secrets to his creative process with tips on how to tell a compelling story.

The winner of six Emmy Awards and two Peabody Awards, Ric has directed some of the most distinguished programs for the award-winning public television series, American Experience and American Masters, including Coney Island, The Donner Party, The Way West, Ansel Adams, Andy Warhol: A Documentary Film, and The Chinese Exclusion Act. According to the New York Times, The Chinese Exclusion Act “feels as if it were made for a moment when border walls and immigration controls are topics of daily conversation.”

Variety called his PBS series New York, “Nothing short of gripping...a monumental documentary series.” TV Guide described the eighth episode — a three-hour portrait of the rise and fall of the World Trade Center — as “a majestically composed eulogy.”

His most recent work, Oliver Sacks: His Own Life, explores the riveting and profoundly moving life and work of this unique figure—an old-fashioned polymath and natural historian of the 19th-century sort who redefined our understanding of the brain and mind.

Burns directed American Ballet Theatre: A History; Debt of Honor: Disabled Veterans in American History, and The Pilgrims, which uncovers the riveting, true story of the men and women of the Mayflower and their harrowing first decade in Massachusetts.

Burns created Driving While Black, a look at the long history of African Americans and automobiles, starting as early as the 20th century.

Coinciding with the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, Burns completed Death and the Civil War in 2012, which examines the impact of the war’s staggering death toll and its enduring trauma on the nation, the government, and the psyche of the American people.

Beginning with a collaboration with his brother Ken Burns on PBS’s The Civil War, Ric first founded Steeplechase Films in 1989. With over 30 hours of award-winning programming for broadcast on national television, Steeplechase has earned thirteen national Emmy nominations, two Peabody Awards, three Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia Journalism awards, and the Erick Barnouw prize from the Organization of American Historians.