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UNC-TV presents The National Parks: America's Best Idea
Preview Screening
June 3
7:30 pm
UNC-TV presents a Special Preview Screening of Ken Burns’ latest documentary series.
At its heart, this program is the story of an idea, as uniquely American as the Declaration of Independence and just as radical – that the most special places in the nation should be preserved, not for royalty or the rich, but for everyone. This idea is constantly tested, constantly evolving, and inherently full of contradictory tensions: between individual rights and the community, between preservation and exploitation, between one generation’s immediate desires and the next generation’s legacy.
This spectacular series was filmed over the course of more than six years at some of nature’s most spectacular locales including Acadia, Yosemite, Yellowstone, The Grand Canyon, the Everglades, and North Carolina’s own Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The narrative traces the birth of the national park idea in the mid-1800s and follows its evolution for nearly 150 years. Using archival photographs, first-person accounts of historical characters, personal memories and analysis from more than 40 interviews, the series chronicles the steady addition of new parks through the stories of the people who helped create them and save them from destruction. It is simultaneously a biography of compelling characters and a biography of the American landscape. (The series will be aired in its entirety on UNC-TV in Fall 2009.)
The broadcast of The National Parks: America's Best Idea is made possible in part by the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation, Friends of the Smokies, Mast General Store and Mission Health System.
Run time is approximately 40 minutes.
To purchase tickets:
1-866-752-0025
