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Quote of the week: from PBS ombudsman Michael Getler:
"Burns and PBS, after meeting with Hispanic groups and
activists, agreed that additional content will be created and added
within what PBS called the “footprint” of the program. That is a terrible
word that nobody understands except TV insiders and conveys the sense of
not really leveling with people. That’s my view, anyway. What it means is
that new material will be included in the air time that the programs are
allotted but will not be included in the already completed original
film."
SUMMARY: Last week, PBS announced it was hiring Latino documentarian Hector Galan
to work with Ken Burns and Lynn Novick to incorporate a Latino perspective to The
War, the 14-hour documentary about Americans in WWII. Galan
was introduced at a meeting in Washington, D.C.,
with several organizations and representatives of PBS, CPB, elected
federal officials Ken Burns. The meeting, Tuesday morning, April 17, lasted for nearly two hours and Burns
explained his vision and his ideas for the inclusion of the Latino
perspective. Galan discussed his own initial
impressions of how he might contribute to The War. The understanding was
that the Latino experience would be integrated in a seamless way. A
second working meeting with Galan, Burns, Novick, Kerger and Gus
Chavez and Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez
of the Defend the Honor campaign, was held later in the day. That meeting
began to flesh out other ideas.
On Wednesday, April 18, the Congressional
Hispanic Caucus held a round-table with several organizations involved in
the Ken Burns issue. Congressman Ciro
Rodriguez, D-San Antonio, asked for recommendations of the various
groups.
A story in the Washington Post on Wednesday led with the sentence:
"Filmmaker Ken Burns agreed yesterday to re-cut his PBS documentary
on World War II to include footage about the contributions of latio and American Indian service members -- and not
to present the material apart from his 14 1/2-hour series." But in
the next day's Post, the story was that Burns would not recut the film.
Rivas-Rodriguez on Friday spoke to Lynn Novick
and asked for clarification. But the explanations by Novick,
and by Kerger, in a letter later on Friday to
various people asking for clarification were anything but. So, until the explanations go beyond the technical, the
Defend the Honor core group is urging individuals to continue voicing
their concerns.
The Defend the Honor core group expects that that this week, Galan will have a firmer understanding of how much
change will be incorporated and what form that inclusion will take. It
will take its cues from Galan, an Austinite who has
distinguished himself with excellent productions that include "Los Mineros," "Chicano!," "Accordian Dreams," etc.
The Congressional Hispanic Caucus sent a letter to Kerger
on April 20, 2007, announcing that its members had formally adopted the
position: "The only appropriate course of action is that the
documentary entitled 'The War' fully incorporate within the body of the
documentary the integral role of Hispanics."
Also, media attention in the Austin American-Statesman, the Daily Texan
(at UT-Austin), Newsweek, the Washington Post, the El Paso Times and
others.
BACKGROUND: THE WAR, a 14-hour documentary on
WWII, is scheduled to air in September on PBS. Director Ken Burns and
associates took six years to interview more than 40 individuals in four
communities (Waterbury,
Connecticut;
Mobile, Alabama; Sacramento, California; and Luverne,
Minnesota).
The documentary features individuals in those communities, with two
ethnic/racial groups given special consideration: Japanese Americans and
African Americans. The film has no reference to the Latino contribution.
The documentary also has an accompanying book and educational
materials. PBS officials say, in a news release: “Serving our
mission to educate and inform, PBS’s goal for THE WAR is to reach into
every home and classroom -- so together we can better understand what we
as a nation experienced in those difficult years and what we as a nation
accomplished.” Concerned individuals, including Rivas-Rodriguez and
Chavez, and dozens across the country, have contacted PBS officials and
Burns’ production company (Florentine Films) and told them that THE WAR
is incomplete without the Latino experience.
This email is part of a weekly update on the efforts to secure
representation of Latinos & Latinas of the WWII generation in THE
WAR. Please see our new website at defendthehonor.org.
MEDIA ATTENTION
1. Newsweek magazine-- ran a story about the controversy
(4-23-07). In it, writer Arian Campo-Flores
notes that "Burns's commentsthat the
new material would be like "an amendment to the Constitution"rankled
many. "I don't think of the Hispanic
community as an amendment to anything," says Sen. Robert Menendez.
"An addendum, in my mind, is not an appropriate response."
See the entire story at: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/18108887/site/newsweek/
2. The Washington
Post's Paul Farhi, wrote the two stories, one in which he said
Burns would "re-edit" (4-18-07) and one, the following day (4-19-07),
which said Burns would not re-edit the film. Farhi
notes:
"Some of the disagreement over Burns's -- and PBS's -- intentions
turns on small but critical semantic distinctions, particularly whether
the unproduced new material will be a
"part" of "The War," or instead air as a
supplement."
Read the stories at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/17/AR2007041702076.html
and at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/17/AR2007041702076.html
3. The El Paso Times Jake Rollow wrote
a story (4-21-07) about the issue, including an interview with Livorio Correo, whose
interview was being recorded by a free-lance documentary film producer,
for airing as a supplement to The War. Rollow
writes: "Correa's speech became gruff when asked what he thought of
the issue. "Let me get this straight. I'm an American and
proud of it and, by the grace of God, a Texan," he said. "I'm an
American," Correa restated. "We earned it."
See the story at: http://www.elpasotimes.com/search/ci_5718718
4. The Austin American-Statesman ran an unsigned
editorial about the issue, (April 14, 2007). It lauds the development
that PBS intends to include the Latino content: "Wonderful
news for those of past, current and future generations who will benefit
from learning about a history long surpressed
or ignored."
See the editorial at: http://www.statesman.com/opinion/content/editorial/stories/04/14/14hispanics_edit.html
5. The Daily Texan, the student newspaper of the University of Texas at Austin,
wrote two stories about the issue. Reporter M.T. Elliott (April
11, 2007) points to Burns use of Census figures from 1940:
"Defending the film, Burns cited census numbers from the 1940s,
which report Hispanics as 1.4 percent of the U.S.
population. The accuracy of census numbers from that era can be discerned
from the discharge papers for Latino veterans, present in the archives of
the oral history project. Many of the discharge papers in the project's
archives list Latinos as white, Rivas-Rodriguez said."
See the story at: http://media.www.dailytexanonline.com/media/storage/paper410/news/2007/04/11/StateLocal/Professor.Criticizes.Pbs.Film-2834151.shtml
Also, Elliott wrote a second story for the following day's paper (April 12,
2007), in which he quotes Raquel Garza, project manager for the
U.S Latino & Latina WWII Oral History Project: "It
would be a shame if he did them such a disservice by just tacking them
on," Garza said, adding she worried it would come off as,
"These guys wanted me to include them, so here it is."
See the story at http://media.www.dailytexanonline.com/media/storage/paper410/news/2007/04/12/TopStories/Pbs-Film.Aims.To.Include.Latino.Wwii.Experiences-2837644.shtml
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