Free program for community to include a screening of segments of THE WAR, highlights from the library’s Veterans History Project collection and an additional screening of a military film from the library's collection.
WHO: Nashville Public Television and the Nashville Public Library
WHAT: Present a free sneak preview of THE WAR, the new 15-hour, seven-part documentary by acclaimed filmmaker Ken Burns. In addition, NPT representatives will discuss the station’s upcoming local WWII documentary; Library of Congress Veterans History Project (VHP) coordinator Linda Barnickel will present highlights from the Nashville Public Library's VHP collection and discuss the library’s oral history project. A light reception and a showing of a military film from the library's collection will follow the program.
WHEN: Saturday, September 15 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
WHERE: Downtown Main Library, 615 Church St. HOW: The entire event is free and open to the public.
About THE WAR
THE WAR, a seven-part, 15-hour documentary series directed and produced by Burns and Lynn Novick premiering Sunday, September 23 on NPT and PBS stations nationwide, explores the history and horror of the Second World War from an American perspective. Six years in the making and reminiscent in scope and power of Burns’s landmark series The Civil War, THE WAR focuses on the stories of citizens from four geographically distributed American towns — Waterbury, Connecticut; Mobile, Alabama; Sacramento, California; and the tiny farming town of Luverne, Minnesota. These four communities stand in for — and could represent — any town in the United States that went through the war’s four devastating years.
Individuals from each community take the viewer through their own personal and quite often harrowing journeys into war, painting vivid portraits of how it dramatically altered their and their neighbors’ lives and the country they helped to save for generations to come. The film follows the fortunes of so-called ordinary men and women who get caught up in the greatest cataclysm in human history.
THE WAR will air over two weeks beginning Sunday, September 23, 2007, (four nights the first week and then three nights the second week), 7:00-9:00 p.m. ET (7:00-9:30 p.m. ET on three nights) on NPT and PBS stations nationwide. In addition to the national broadcast on PBS, THE WAR will air simultaneously on NPT’s HD Channel with surround sound. PBS will repeat each episode the night it airs, stage marathon viewings on the weekends and launch the film as a weekly series after its first two-week run. The series will also be rebroadcast on PBS’ World Channel following the original broadcast. A Web page dedicated to THE WAR has been launched at pbs.org/thewar.
About Nashville Public Television
NASHVILLE PUBLIC TELEVISION is available free and over the air to nearly 2.2 million people throughout the Middle Tennessee and southern Kentucky viewing area, and is watched by more than 600,000 households every week. The mission of NPT is to provide, through the power of traditional television and interactive telecommunications, high quality educational, cultural and civic experiences that address issues and concerns of the people of the Nashville region, and which thereby help improve the lives of those we serve.
About the Veterans History Project
The Special Collections Center of Nashville Public Library, in partnership with the Library of Congress and the American Folklife Center, is participating in the Veterans History Project. The project collects materials, artifacts and photographs related to military service, and records the oral histories of that service where possible through interviews conducted with veterans and civilians who served in support during World War II and the Korean, Vietnam and Persian Gulf wars.
The Veterans History Project Collection in the Special Collections Center at Nashville Public Library consists of recorded interviews with local veterans, and documentary materials donated by veterans or their families. Materials in the collection include letters, memoirs, scrapbooks, unit histories and unit newsletters, photographs, oral histories and transcripts, maps and publications.
The Veterans History Project was established by the United States Congress in October 2000. It called on the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress to collect and preserve audio- and videotaped oral histories, along with documentary materials such as letters, diaries, maps, and photographs of America's war veterans and those who served in support of them. The project covers World War I, World War II, and the Korean, Vietnam and Persian Gulf wars and includes all participants in those wars: men and women, civilian and military. It documents the contributions of civilian volunteers, support staff, and war industry workers as well as the experiences of military personnel from all ranks and all branches of service including the Air Force, Army, Marine Corps and Navy, as well as the U.S. Coast Guard and Merchant Marine.
For information about the Veterans History Project at Nashville Public Library, contact Linda Barnickel at 615-862-5804 ext. 6055 or linda.barnickel@nashville.gov.
About Nashville Public Library
Nashville Public Library, which consists of the downtown Main Library and 20 branch libraries, maintains a collection of more than 1.6 million items including books, periodicals, DVDs, CDs, audiobooks and downloadable audiobooks, as well as more than 600 public-use computers and free monthly exhibits, educational programs and events for all ages, such as historic marionette shows by Wishing Chair Productions enjoyed by nearly 6,000 children each month. NPL also offers 24/7 reference assistance, online databases, interlibrary loan and special collections such as the Metropolitan Archives and The Nashville Room, which offers online genealogical resources such as Ancestry Library Edition and HeritageQuest and local history materials, as well as materials from the award-winning Civil Rights Room. Equal access is offered through the Talking Library audio reading service for the print disabled, and Library Services for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. For more information, call 615-862-5800 or visit www.library.nashville.org.
CONTACT: Joe Pagetta (615) 259-9325, x211
email: jpagetta@wnpt.net.