PBS Encore Presentation: "The National Parks: America's Best Idea"

[Kinsa]

If you've never seen this documentary series, I highly encourage it; it is excellent! Begins tonight, April 25th.

 

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In celebration of the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service, PBS will present an encore broadcast of the critically acclaimed 2009 Ken Burns documentary series, "The National Parks: America's Best Idea," Monday through Saturday.

 

The 12-hour, six-part documentary series will begin at 8 p.m. each night. The series was directed by Burns and coproduced with his longtime colleague, Dayton Duncan, who also wrote the script.

 

The series focuses on the idea that the most special places in the nation should be preserved, not for royalty or the rich, but for everyone. As such, it follows in the tradition of Burns' explorations of other American inventions, such as baseball and jazz.

 

After its original broadcast in 2009, the documentary won two prime time Emmy Awards for outstanding nonfiction series and for outstanding writing in nonfiction programming. The director of the National Park Service made Burns and Duncan Honorary Park Rangers.

 

Filmed over the course of more than six years in some of nature's most spectacular locales from Acadia to Yosemite, Yellowstone to the Grand Canyon, the Everglades of Florida to the Gates of the Arctic in Alaska the documentary is a story of people from every conceivable background rich and poor; famous and unknown; soldiers and scientists; natives and newcomers; idealists, artists and entrepreneurs.

 

People who were willing to devote themselves to saving some precious portion of the land they loved and in doing so, reminded their fellow citizens of the full meaning of democracy.

 

The documentary series is described as a story of struggle and conflict, high ideals and crass opportunism, stirring adventure and enduring inspiration set against breathtaking backdrops.