Gettysburg’s second Ken Burns Film Festival and third major celebration of historical films in little more than a year drew 4000+ people to events this weekend. This time the leading attractions weren’t Gettysburg’s George Pickett (Stephen Lang) and James Longstreet (Tom Berenger) but instead were Law and Order prosecutor Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston) and West Wing President Josiah Bartlett (Martin Sheen).
Like the first Ken Burns festival (held in February 2023) and the “Gettysburg 30” celebration (held in October), this celebration was the brainchild of movie and video producer Jake Boritt and Andrew Dalton, Executive director of the Adams County Historical Society, who were the festival’s director and producer.
In his presentations, Burns stressed the central role of Gettysburg in his videos and in American history. “Jefferson’s Declaration gave us our initial operating system, our 1.0,” said Burns. “But Lincoln gave us our 2.0 and we are still operating under that system.” Burns also described the importance of the place to him personally. Burns said he had a taxing trip to get to Gettysburg, dealing with late flights, weather, traffic, and an earthquake in New York, “but when I turned onto Route 15, that feeling came over me again,” he said.
Burns addressed the importance of historical documentaries. “We’re telling a more complex story. Democracy has to be reinvented and saved by every generation. These documentaries can also fill the gap created by the cutback in civics education. The absence of a background in civics will be the death of democracy,” he said.
The most attended event was a conversation on Lincoln among Burns, Sheen, and Waterston, held in the Gettysburg High school auditorium. Sheen lamented Lincoln’s loss and praised Burns for “giving us a chance to mourn him.” Waterston, who voiced Lincoln in Burns’s “Civil War,” described the overpowering feeling of visiting the Lincoln Memorial. “If you want to feel all the hairs on your body stand up, go there after dark,” he said.
The festival also included sessions on “Our Democracy Challenged” and “Consequential Elections,” musical performances by Jay Ungar and Molly Mason, who created the haunting Ashokan’s Farewell for Burns’s Civil War; a discussion led by Lincoln scholar Harold Holzer with Waterston and Sheen, and a discussion with history content creators J.D. Huitt and Chris Mowery.
The “Our Democracy Challenged” session led by Burns on Saturday in the Majestic Theater pointed out the many occasions – secession, Louisiana demagogue Huey P. Long, Charles Lindbergh, and other Nazi sympathizers and authoritarians in the 1930s, the civil rights movement of the 1960s – when democracy faced serious challenges. “Every generation faces its own challenge and must fight to keep democracy,” said Burns. The program included screenings of two award winning videos by Abigail Giroux and Jay Patel.
Holzer, who chaired the conversation with Sheen and Waterston, commented that “these actors have brought characters from history back to life so brilliantly. It was an honor to engage them in remembering men like JFK, Lincoln, Eddie Slovick and H. Robert Oppenheimer, who they have brought to life so memorably.”
During a break, Waterston led a group to the National Cemetery, where he did a reading of the Gettysburg Address.
Several documentaries about key moments when democracy was challenged or affirmed were screened at the Majestic Theater, including films on women’s rights leaders Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony; the Statue of Liberty; America and the Holocaust; and Huey P. Long.
Holzer had high compliments for the event. “Ken Burns’s documentary on the Civil War has been bringing together historians and aficionados in useful and inspiring dialogue for thirty years. So it was no surprise that Jake Boritt and Andrew Dalton teased an entire film festival out of this and other Ken Burns classics.” he said.
Featured image caption: Ken Burns and Jake Boritt
Leon Reed, freelance reporter, is a former US Senate staff member, defense consultant, and history teacher. He is a 10 year resident of Gettysburg, where he writes military history and explores the park and the Adams County countryside. He is the publisher at Little Falls Books, chaired the Adams County 2020 Census Complete Count Committee and is on the board of SCCAP. He and his wife, Lois, have 3 children, 3 cats, and 5 grandchildren.