Filming Behind Bars with Lynn Novick and Sarah Botstein

The Documentary Life

Two veterans of Ken Burns films, Lynn Novick and Sarah Botstein, have recently completed work on their documentary film, four-part PBS series, College Behind Bars. And I had the pleasure of speaking with the both of them about some of their experiences working on Ken Burns’ films as well as what it was like going off on their own for their most recent work.

Topics Discussed

• how teaching classes in prison inspired Lynn Novick and Sarah Botstein to make College Behind Bars
• Novick and Botstein detail the logistics of making a documentary film in a prison
• how working with Ken Burns over the years informed their whittling down of 400 hours of verite footage into four hours of a series
• Novick and Botstein discuss how we, as doc filmmakers, experience profound change in our lives making our films and working with our subjects

Additional Resources

Watch the extended trailer for, College Behind Bars

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8ec3QpnaiU

Watch an extended look, The Vietnam War

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3j-3Xi5BcKs

Sponsors & Thank Yous

° Free Music Archive – Special Thank You to recording artist, Dlay who supplied music for this week’s episode of TDL. You too can download his music or other artists’ music by going to Free Music Archive today!

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