“Vietnam is the most important event in American history in the second half of the 20th century”, filmmaker Ken Burns explains about his documentary series The Vietnam War, which he co-directed with Lynn Novick and presented in Houston on Wednesday.
Both Burns and Novick had a conversation with Houston Public Media prior to the preview to talk about their 18-hour series, which contain new and unpublished footage of the war and show the conflict from many different perspectives, including veterans from both sides, the political context in both countries, and the unresolved grief around the issue.
“A good deal of the divisions that we suffer from today began, and metastasized badly during the Vietnam period, and we haven’t really been able to put them to bed”, says Burns. “It still divides us, as it does the Vietnamese people…”