CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA. – Acclaimed documentary filmmaker, producer, and writer Ken Burns will be the featured speaker July 4 at Monticello’s 46th annual Independence Day Celebration and Naturalization Ceremony.
The July 4 event at the home of Thomas Jefferson begins at 10 a.m. and is open to the public free of charge.
Burns, a native of Brooklyn, N.Y., graduated from Hampshire College in Amherst, Mass., before producing and directing the Academy Award-nominated documentary, Brooklyn Bridge, in 1981.
In the following years, Burns produced, wrote, and directed a string of successful documentaries, including The Civil War, a landmark 11-part film that premiered in 1990 and became the highest rated series in the history of PBS.
Helping to reinvigorate interest in history as well as icons of American culture and art, Burns went on to make a string of successful documentaries for public television, including Baseball, Jazz, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Mark Twain.
In 2007, Burns again turned his lens to war. During a seven-night run on PBS, The War examined the effect World War II had on the lives of Americans overseas and at home.
Through the years, Burns’ films also have addressed Jefferson and his legacy. In 1997, Burns produced Thomas Jefferson, a three-hour film exploring the contradictions of the third president, and Lewis and Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery.
Burns’ address will mark the filmmaker’s return to Monticello. In January 2003, he was a featured speaker at a ceremony that launched the commemoration of Lewis and Clark Expedition bicentennial.
The list of past July 4 speakers at Monticello includes President Gerald Ford (1976), astronomer Carl Sagan (1992), historian David McCullough (1994), Gen. Colin L. Powell (1997), and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright (2000). Last year’s speaker was the noted actor Sam Waterston.
Since 1963, approximately 3,000 individuals have been sworn in as American citizens on Independence Day at Monticello in proceedings presided over by the U.S. District Court, Western District of Virginia.
This Fourth of July will mark the 232nd anniversary of American independence. Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, died at Monticello on the 50th anniversary, July 4, 1826.
