‘The Revolution WILL be televised’

    

Documentarian Ken Burns will have his latest, The American Revolution, debuted on PBS in two weeks. It’s a long shot, but I am hoping some mention of Freemasonry will fit in the six-chapter, 12-hour series coming November 16.

It’s only fair. Many of his previous works involve historical Freemasons but do not mention the fraternity, such as The Statue of Liberty (1985), Lewis & Clark (1997), Mark Twain (2001), The Roosevelts (2014), and, most recently, Benjamin Franklin (2022). I’ve always believed his style of filmmaking would be ideal for a story about Freemasonry itself. He excels at telling of generational histories (Baseball, 1994; Jazz, 2001; Country Music, 2019) and epochal events (The Civil War, 1990; The War, 2007; The Vietnam War, 2017).

Who better to chronicle the adventures of a folkway that germinated in sixteenth century Scotland and spread around the globe, influencing cultures and societies everywhere while embracing the giants of Western Civilization? Many years ago, I emailed his office pitching that idea, but received no reply.

     

‘Ben Franklin gets the Burns treatment’

    

Benjamin Franklin, revered Freemason, Founding Father, inventor, natural philosopher, statesman, entrepreneur, and more, is the subject of a two-part biography by filmmaker Ken Burns. It can be seen starting next Monday on PBS television and streaming.

I am doubtful the film will say anything about Franklin’s Masonic association. He was a busy man who milked the utmost from his eighty-four years in this world, whereas Burns’ story runs four hours.

Ken Burns, in his forty-one years of producing documentaries, has touched the periphery of Masonic history many times. Some of his previous biographies (Lewis & Clark, Mark Twain, The Roosevelts) honed in on famous Masons, and many of his histories bump into the works of others (The Statue of Liberty, The National Parks). Then, of course, his epic anthropological films (Jazz, Baseball, Country Music) unavoidably discuss the lives and deeds of a number of Masons.

It was on that basis that I once emailed him about twenty years ago to pitch the idea of a film on Freemasonry. Granted, it’s a huge subject, but it encompasses story elements that figure into his documentaries. From the giants of history astride the globe, to folks you might know living their lives on Main Street—with race relations and women’s inclusion in the mix—human progress is encapsulated in the Masonic story. There is a bottomless inventory of archives and artifacts, material culture and ephemera, art and music to drive Burns’ use of photographs and movie reels that supplement his interviews, narration, and cinematography.

I never did hear back.

     

‘The Work for Awakened Attention’

     
The Gurdjieff Foundation of New York will offer another of its introductory events next month to explain a bit about its mystical teachings. This session, titled “The Work for Awakened Attention,” will be hosted Friday, October 7 at 6:30 p.m. inside the lecture hall of Quest Bookshop (240 East 53rd Street, between Second and Third, in Manhattan). If you want to check it out, do them a big favor and reserve your seat by e-mailing the organizers here.

After attending an introductory event, like this one, you have the option of delving a little further into the matter. On the following weekend, on Saturday, October 15, the group will host another event, including a screening of a Ken Burns film. The talk will be “A Way of Life,” and the film is Vézelay, made by Burns in 1995, and this will take place in The Sheen Center (Studio A), located at 18 Bleecker Street, from 4 to 5:30. RSVP here.

Click to enlarge.