Get all your news in one place.
100's of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Entertainment
David Smith in Washington

Ken Burns: ‘The only thing that changes people is storytelling’

Ken Burns and Julianna Brannum.
Ken Burns and Julianna Brannum, a member of the Quahada band of the Comanche Nation of Oklahoma, who served as consulting producer on The American Buffalo. Photograph: Steve Holmes/Steve Holmes Photography

“My last film was on the US and the Holocaust,” documentarian Ken Burns told an audience in Washington recently. “I didn’t think the next film would be about eugenics too.”

That next film is The American Buffalo, a two-part, four-hour series exploring how the national mammal helped sustain Native Americans on the Great Plains for millennia – only to be nearly wiped out by white settlers in little more than a decade.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100's of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.