The Emmy-winning documentarian Ken Burns said Thursday that he supports the goals of a group of nonfiction filmmakers who have criticized PBS over a lack of diversity and an “over-reliance” on his work.
“I wholeheartedly support the objectives of the letter writers,” Burns said in an interview. “I think this is hugely important, and one of the reasons we’ve been in public television has been a commitment to inclusion and diversity.”
“But can we do better? Of course we can. Can PBS do better? Of course they can,” Burns added.
In a letter addressed to executives of the Public Broadcasting Service, nearly 140 documentary filmmakers — including Garrett Bradley (“Time”) and Sam Pollard (“MLK/FBI”) — accused the public broadcaster of a “systemic failure to fulfill a mandate for a diversity of voices.”
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