The filmmaker wants his new documentary, “The Vietnam War,” to bring the country together. Can anyone do that in the age of Trump?
Last December, after Donald Trump had won the presidential election, documentarian Ken Burns told me that he was feeling like “the optimistic Frodo in Mordor.” Burns has a tendency to describe himself and his work in sweeping, sometimes self-congratulatory, language, and this would not be the only time he likened himself to J.R.R. Tolkien’s small, unlikely hero, entrusted with shepherding something valuable through dangerous territory. Yet if Burns presents his career as a popular historian in lofty, even epic, terms, he’s not alone in thinking of himself that way.
When Thomas Vallely, who served as a Marine in Vietnam, was trying to decide whether to work with Burns on his ambitious new history of the Vietnam War, Vallely’s son Charlie came up with a convincing argument in favor: “Ken Burns decides what America thinks of itself.”
In fact, audiences don’t always agree on what Burns’s idea of America is. Critics have charged him both with peddling feel-good stories about the past and with an “obsessive” focus on racism, with shying away from partisan politics and with venerating progressivism. Still, to debate precisely what Burns thinks about America is to concede the larger point: that Burns occupies an unusual role in an exceptionally polarizing time.
It was a hard choice, but in the end it was no choice at all. A small rescue boat had come up the driveway, offering help. Carl Ellis was with his frail, 73-year-old mother, Wilma Jean. The boat had room for one.
The water was already up to Mr. Ellis’s knees, so there was no time to wait for rescuers with more room. His mother would have to go alone.
Using the back of a pickup truck as a gangplank, Mr. Ellis helped his mother into the boat, her belongings trussed up in garbage bags. There were no life jackets, but it was a short trip and the rescuers promised to come right back for him.
He never saw them — or his mother — again.
Any catastrophic weather event has its measurable aspects: inches of rain, speed of wind, cubic yards of debris. Others are incalculable: waterlogged photos, frayed communities, the invisible moorings of permanence and safety swept away.
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Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital in Houston, where Wilma Jean Ellis, after being rescued twice, arrived in a body bag.Credit Bryan Thomas for The New York Times
As Hurricane Irma bears down on the East coast, Floridians may be wondering where all the hurricanes come from, and why they all follow a similar course. In fact, Irma, Harvey, and Jose were all born on the other side of the Atlantic, off the coast of Africa, and the Sahara desert may be to blame.
The moon’s shadow crosses the United States, a child experiences weightlessness and more of the best space images of August 2017.
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Starburst
NASA astronaut Jack Fischer tweeted this photo of the sun through a window on the space station on Aug. 9, writing “Tried a new lens and snapped a lucky pic as the sun ducked behind International Space Station.”
Monte Aloia is a summit in the mountains of Galicia, Spain, which was declared a natural park on 4 December 1978. The park covers an area of 746 hectares and is located within the municipality of Tui, a town on the River Miño.
It is a Site of Community Importance. The vegetation consists of pine plantations and shrubland. It has remnants of the Castro culture, and elements of ethnographic interest.
Researchers at the University of Edinburgh just discovered 91 new volcanoes in Antarctica, bringing the total number of volcanoes in the region up to 138. Their biggest concern is that some of these volcanoes might be active.
Film and Writing Festival for Comedy. Showcasing best of comedy short films at the FEEDBACK Film Festival. Plus, showcasing best of comedy novels, short stories, poems, screenplays (TV, short, feature) at the festival performed by professional actors.
Vietnam
Satellite dish-like grill
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Starburst
House in Monte Aloia Nature Park Spain
‘Pink’
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James' World 2 