By JORGE MARISCAL
Hispanic Link
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
PBS and Ken Burns still don't get it.
After months of negotiations with Latino advocacy groups, academics, veterans and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, the powers that be at PBS and their house director, Ken Burns, fail to understand the real issues at stake in his exclusion of the Latino experience in his World War II documentary "The War."
In an article published May 5 in The New York Times, Burns continued to make self-aggrandizing and ignorant statements.
According to the Times, Burns called his 14-hour series, scheduled to be shown during Hispanic Heritage Month in September, "a sort of epic poem and not a textbook."
He must be kidding. Several weeks ago, Burns compared his film to the U.S. Constitution. Now he says it's sort of an epic poem.
If he knew anything about epic poems, he would know that they were composed with the goal of representing an entire community's historical experience. They had nothing to do with an individual artist's personal vision. The singer of the Iliad or the Poem of the Cid was simply a vehicle for a shared collective experience.
Clearly, Burns is not interested in any of these things. He has his individual "vision," which cannot be tampered with. He is a self-righteous romantic who has no business and not enough knowledge to chronicle an event as momentous as World War II.
No one in the group that raised questions about the film asked Burns to turn it into "a textbook." Let him be as lyrical and non-narrative as he wishes. No one wants to deprive him of his artistic freedom. But he has no right to invent a history of the war that excludes a community that paid a very high price for its participation.
The Times article stated: "Mr. Burns, who was not at the meeting (between PBS executives and Hispanic leaders), said he found it painful that the controversy was erupting over a film in which he explores an episode of American history that brought citizens together."
Burns is pained by the controversy. Then why doesn't he stop his pain by doing the right thing? Is his "vision" more important than an inclusive account of the war? It was his flawed "vision" and sloppy research (not those who raised legitimate questions) that created divisions.
While it is certainly true that World War II brought the American people together, Burns needs to go back to school to learn about events like the Zoot Suit Riots and the Felix Longoria case. World War II was not as utopian for some communities as Burns thinks it was. He didn't do his homework.
Burns should either fire his researchers or fire himself. As long as PBS continues to take money from the public treasury, it should fire all of them.
Can we Latinos look forward to some future Ken Burns excluding us from the history of the U.S. war in Iraq?
Finally, the Times reported: "Mr. Burns said there was no chance that the film would be re-edited. It would be destructive, like trying to graft an arm onto your child," he said. "It would destroy the film."
Give me a break. Any decent writer or filmmaker not blinded by ego knows that any text or film thought to be finished can be reopened and revised without the slightest negative impact on overall tone and structure. It might actually get better.
To think otherwise displays either a total lack of creative imagination or a stubborn refusal to listen to other voices, or both.
A film is not a child. And if it were, no one is asking Burns to attach a third arm.
Simply put, Latinos are asking Burns to reshape the entire artifact into a harmonious object that reflects every community that lived the experience of the war against fascism.
One of the cities featured in the current film is Sacramento, Calif. Competent historians could quickly provide Burns with stories of Latino veterans from that city that might be seamlessly woven into his film.
But, unfortunately, PBS and Ken Burns still don't get it. Or they simply don't care.
(Jorge Mariscal, a veteran of the U.S. war in Vietnam, is a professor of history and literature at the University of California-San Diego. Contact him at gmariscal(at)ucsd.edu.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service.)
PBS
If Mr. Burns does not think there is a chance the film can be re-edited, then this Latina does not think there is a chance I will be renewing my annual donation to PBS.
What the hell?
Do you guys actually think this kind of small minded crap will help?
Leave the man alone, hes not a racist. I've seen the film and its good. I really cant abide by this kind of petty selfish politics.
what the hell?
The reason he can't call it anything other than "an epic poem" is because people other than himself have messed with his work. He is an artist, obviously artists make art; it follows, then that Ken Burns is and artist. What was there is no longer his, it now belongs to two directors The real issue is censorship.
Burns makes a film, a group doesn't believe it fair to exclude them from his uh, "painting" (insert any description that satisfies your requirements for the meaning(s) of the word art)... Burns gives in, they elect a "representative" that helps him "adjust" the final work - what? 'cmon! that is censorship. And it is complete bullshit.
Ken Burns: please release the original cut on DVD so we may experience the original work
thanks! and have a great day!.... What the real issue here is censorship.
Stupidity
THe guy can make a film any way he wants too ... just another stupid protest over nothing and hyphanated Americans. Should ever Irish, Russian, Amish, or Antarctic group rise up and demand a segment .... these people just need to shut UP! He wan't a film on the war not a diversity lesson morons!
unhappy hispanics
Boo Hoo Hoo Bwaw, sniff sniff. Fall on the floor and throw a tantrum. I am an american of swedish descent. should I throw a fit and toss around threats, if my demands for the swedish american contribution during the war is not given a proper airing. You have no right whatsoever to demand any thing from Ken Burns, PBS, or any of the rest of us.Make your own documentary, STFU, and grow up.
re: PBS
If that is the case, then I propose a boycott of Latinos for not equally identifying themselves in the make up of contributors and viewers of Public Broadcasting. Pehaps there should be political pressure brought to bear on Latinos not adequately representing their ethnicity. For what it's worth, my wife is Latino and is appalled at the conduct and audacity of certain Latin-American organizations.
Art/Reality
You people really need to start learning about the effect minorities had, have and will keep having in this country's history. I know the movie is a piece of "art" but this is not an abstract piece of work or anything like it where you can express freely whatever is going through your mind. This is narrating something that actually happened in the past, it's history, reality; therefore it should include everything related to it and Latinos were a great part of it. I am not necessarily saying that the author is racist; it is just a clear example that he excluded an important group of people that were involved in WWII and he doesn't want to do anything about it. He should be able to take some feedback and fix this, because even thou it's his "piece of art", it is still telling us a part of HISTORY, you can't omit parts of it, you need to include the whole thing and how the war affected everyone and not only some people.
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