Filmmaker Ken Burns, a Grammy, Emmy and Peabody Award winner, defended his landmark new documentary "Jazz" at a panel discussion entitled "Jazz, Race and American Identity" last night at Harvard Law School's Austin Hall.
Panelists--including W.E.B. Du Bois Professor of the Humanities Henry Louis "Skip" Gates Jr., Law School Professor Charles J. Ogletree and a number of jazz experts and critics--explored the impact of jazz on American history and culture through the context of the documentary.
Panelists also discussed the history of race relations as played out in the jazz movement.
Burns's 17 and a half hour long documentary began airing on PBS Jan. 8.
In front of a packed room, Burns, who has won acclaim for his previous documentaries on the Civil War and baseball, fended off attacks from other panelists that the film had left out important aspects of jazz history.
Prominent essayist Stanley Crouch said Burns had not sufficiently emphasized the role of race in jazz history.
"Not enough of the civil rights struggle is put into the film," he said.
Burns, however, said that he was not trying to present a complete and comprehensive history.
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