Ken Burns Screens New Suffrage Film

Ken Burns, the acclaimed producer and director of documentaries on American history, presented his newest documentary, "Not for Ourselves Along: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony," yesterday before a packed crowd in Science Center A.

Burns showed six clips totaling under a fourth of the film, adding historical background and commentary about the women's suffrage movement and its two pivotal leaders, Stanton and Anthony. The three-hour documentary, fourth in series of five biographical films, will be shown Nov. 7 and 8 on PBS.

"When Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony were born, women had less rights than a lunatic--that is, a male lunatic--in an asylum," Burns said. "By the time that they died, most of these--what we consider self-evident--rights had been at least partly achieved."

The clips spanned period between the Seneca Falls convention of 1848 to the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920, which gave women the right to vote.

Other film segments investigated the relationship between Anthony and Stanton and documented Stanton's emotional final speech, "The Solitude of Self," which Burns said is on a literary par with Emerson's "Self-Reliance."

"[The film] is focused initially on where [Stanton and Anthony] came from, their psychology and their friendship, but also on the political movement they founded," Burns said in an interview.

Burns said his interest in producing the documentary began 11 years ago, during the production of his Civil War documentary.

"My co-producer Paul Barnes was reading a biography of Stanton and would regale us daily with her stories," he said. "I felt humiliated that I didn't know about the two most important women in American history."

He said researching the film was difficult because the topic has not been scrutinized as much as other subjects in American history. But he said that he found many of his sources in the Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, the presentation's sponsor and part of the newly formed Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.

The presentation was followed by a reception at the library, where

suffragist art, documents, posters and other memorabilia were displayed along with Anthony's and Stanton's original manuscripts.

Susan W. Ware, editor of Notable AmericanWomen, a journal produced at Schlesinger Library, said Burns' film helps make Stanton and Anthony seem more real.

"When you hear them talk, you will see that they are witty, funny and extremely politically savvy women," she said.

"This really got you involved," said Barbara G. Rosenkrantz '44, professor emerita in the History of Science Department. "This was an exciting way to get people to think seriously about politics and science."

Ware said it is important for the film to be seen by a large audience. In the coming weeks, Burns says he plans to travel to many different college campuses to present his film.

"It will give the national audience a sense of the long struggle, the long fight for equality," Ware said. "It will restore part of the story and remind us of the importance of the vote."

Burns said he hopes his film will provoke discussion and inspire women to continue the struggle for equality.

"If these issues are not set into motion once again I fear for the future of the republic," he said. "I want a young girl someplace to say, after watching the film, 'Wow, I can do that.'"

Burns' next film, airing next fall, is a 10-part series on the history of jazz. General Motors has agreed to sponsor Burns' films for the next 10 years.