The Civil War - A Film By Ken Burns

It divided a country. It created a nation.
A Historic Series Returns to KVIE

Airing over five consecutive nights
Beginning Sunday, September 22 at 8 PM

When The Civil War originally premiered in September 1990, the response was phenomenal and the series became a national viewing event. The Civil War remains the highest-rated program in PBS history.

Beginning September 22, 2002, 12 years after the film premiered, KVIE will rebroadcast this landmark series in its entirety complete with digitally remastered images and audio. In addition, the updated version will include a new introduction by filmmaker Ken Burns, as well as special interviews with Shelby Foote, Stanley Crouch, George Will, musicians Jay Ungar and Molly Mason, among others, and new behind-the-scenes material, including a side-by-side demonstration of the remastered footage.

After the film's premiere, The Civil War went on to win more than 40 major awards, including a Peabody, two Emmy Awards and the People's Choice, epitomizing event television so much so that Johnny Carson talked about it every night on The Tonight Show. The Washington Post wrote, "This is not just good television, nor even great television. This is heroic television." The New York Times said that with The Civil War, Ken Burns "takes his place as the most accomplished documentary filmmaker of his generation."

"The Civil War captured the country's attention, in part because it encapsulates one of the great themes of our history: the struggle for American freedom," says Burns. "This war was the greatest event in American history - where paradoxically in order to become one, we had to tear ourselves in two." The Civil War spurred an intense interest in history and contributed to the birth of a new style of documentary filmmaking that effectively combined that careful use of archival photographs, live modern cinematography, music, narration and a chorus of first-person voices into a carefully woven story-telling fabric.

Technology has evolved significantly since The Civil War was originally mastered for broadcast and video viewing, so Ken Burns decided that before the film would be re-released, the film should be updated, taking advantage of new film-transfer, color-correction and audio mixing techniques. Every frame has been digitized and the sound remixed in stereo.

Don't miss this special presentation of an epic series. It's your opportunity to relive one of the most significant events in television history.