Director and producer Ken Burns and partner Lynn Novick gave a presentation and answered questions at the McCormick Tribune Center to promote their newest documentary, “Prohibition,” on Wednesday.
“Prohibition” explores the history of the Eighteenth Amendment, which banned the sale of alcohol in the U.S. The film will air on PBS stations across the country Oct. 2 at 7 p.m. CST. Burns’ other well known documentaries such as “The Civil War” and “Jazz”were also broadcast on PBS.
Burns and Novick each gave a quick introduction to the film, followed by a showing of an excerpt of the film. The 15-minute showing explored a raid of illegal Manhattan speakeasies, as well as social and political themes present during the 1928 presidential election campaign between Democrat Al Smith, a candidate who opposed Prohibition, and Republican candidate Herbert Hoover, who supported it.
The discussion following the preview was lighthearted as Burns and Novick received questions from Medill Prof. and moderator Brent Huffman and later, audience members.
“There’s a Prohibition story in everyone,” he said. “In Chicago, there’s usually three.”
According to Burns, events like this are crucial to promoting his films.
“We don’t have the budget of an HBO to spend tens of millions of dollars on advertising and promotion,” Burns said, “so we have to do old-fashioned shoe leather, and it means going out into the various communities and doing an event for the local public television station.”
Burns said he particularly enjoyed the interaction he had with the Northwestern audience.
“This was among the most thrilling events,” he said. “To organize it the way it was, to think about it in the way we did, to respond to extraordinarily interesting questions, that was great.”
Burns scheduled four events in Chicago, but his appearance at NU was more academic in nature than some of his other appearances, said Anne Gleason, vice president of marketing from WTTW, the local PBS affiliate.
“We’ll have more of an academic discussion here, where other events might be a little more general audience-oriented,” she said.
Gleason said Chicago plays an important role in the documentary because of its Prohibition history, prompting Burns and Novick to appear at multiple events throughout the city.
More than 150 Evanston and Chicago-area residents and NU students attended, many of whom stayed afterwards to receive Burns’ autograph or shake hands with the acclaimed filmmaker.
Chicago resident Joe Doyle said he was thankful for this event, which provided the community with free entertainment.
“I thought the event was very nice,” Doyle said. “I’m a big fan of PBS, and that along with events like this one save me from having to buy cable.”
According to Burns and Novick, the cities of Evanston and Chicago contrasted sharply during the Prohibition era, with the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union based in Evanston, and Chicago being a prominent site for bootlegging and illegally selling alcohol.
“Right next door was Chicago,” Novick said. “For many, it was a law that didn’t make sense. It was a forgone conclusion that (Prohibition) wouldn’t work here.”
A theme that ran throughout the presentation was respect for the complexity of history. Too often, people oversimplify the past, Burns said, which motivates him to make documentaries that fully explore the details of past eras.
“In our minds, we don’t permit the past to live as fully as today, ” Burns said. “But if you do that, it’s an amazing story.”
