Ken Burns Legendary Filmmaker to Receive Order of Magellan
The Circumnavigators Club is delighted to announce that the world’s premier documentary filmmaker will receive our highest honor, The Order of Magellan. Ken Burns will join a distinguished list of honorees, including Walter Cronkite, John Glenn, Edmund Hillary, and Sandra Day O’Connor, who have been honored since the award was established in 1961.
The Order of Magellan will be awarded to Mr. Burns on November 12, 2020 in New York City. Since this event is nearly a year away, details and an invitation will be sent to members sometime in 2020.
Mr. Burns has been making documentary films for over 40 years. Since the Academy Award nominated Brooklyn Bridgein 1981, he has gone on to direct and produce some of the most acclaimed historical documentaries ever made, including The Civil War; Baseball; Jazz; The Statue of Liberty; Huey Long; Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery; Frank Lloyd Wright; Mark Twain; Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson; The War; The National Parks: America’s Best Idea; The Roosevelts: An Intimate History; Jackie Robinson; Defying the Nazis: The Sharps’ War; The Vietnam War; and, most recently, Country Music.
A December 2002 poll conducted by Real Screen Magazine listed The Civil War as second only to Robert Flaherty’s Nanook of the North as the “most influential documentary of all time,” and named Ken Burns and Robert Flaherty as the “most influential documentary makers” of all time. In March 2009, David Zurawik of The Baltimore Sun said, “… Burns is not only the greatest documentarian of the day, but also the most influential filmmaker period.”
Mr. Burns’ films have been honored with dozens of major awards, including sixteen Emmy Awards, two Grammy Awards and two Oscar nominations; and in September of 2008, at the News & Documentary Emmy Awards, he was honored by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences with a Lifetime Achievement Award.
Last Call for The LOG
The next issue of The LOG will be published in January. We have all the features stories and photos that we need. However, it is not too late for members to submit a photo and a line or two about recent travel for the column All Over the Map. Please submit these no later than December 15 by email attachment to davidamink@me.com.
Bougainville, Anyone?
Circumnavigator Albert Podell wants to go to this island nation to keep his designation of having visited every country on earth. Bougainville has now become the newest nation with its independence from Papua New Guinea, and it isn’t easy to get to. Albert, author and adventurer, says, “ I can’t quite figure out how to get there and wonder if any Circumnavigator has any recent experience in visiting there.
“Both the Bougainville airports have been closed for over a year for safety reasons, ranging from stray animals on the runways to the locals using them as a drag strips.. There used to be a passenger ferry, the Rabaul Queen, that went from Port Moresby to Bougainville, but it sank with 173 lives in 2011, as many of these Micronesian ferries have an inclination to do.” He adds, “Maybe members from Naples or Palm Beach could give me a lift on their yacht.” Luck to you, Albert! You will need it!
The Last Shot
Do you have a good photo for The Last Shot? Please send to club@circumnavigators.org.
Luck to you!
David A. Mink
International President
davidamink@me.com
