The Better Angels Society is a 501(c)3 organization that was founded by supporters of Ken Burns to raise funds for his work from individuals of wealth and private family foundations.^[2] They have grown into the preeminent organization dedicated to engaging Americans with their history through documentary film. Katherine Malone-France was appointed President & CEO in 2023,^[3] taking the reins from Amy Margerum Berg who served as the organization's president between 2016-2023.^[4]

The Better Angel Society assists a diverse group of emerging and established filmmakers by providing funds to complete, broadcast, promote, and share their documentaries in ways that reach and inform as many people as possible through robust educational and civic outreach programs.

According to their website, they support:

•Ken Burns and Florentine Films
•Lynn Novick and Skiff Mountain Films
•The Better Angels Stories initiative through public media partnerships with American Experience (GBH), American Masters (WNET), and WETA
•American history documentaries through the annual Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for Film and the Better Angels Lavine Fellowship
•Building the next generation of American history documentarians by providing students with the tools and opportunities to tell the stories of our shared history through The Next Generation Angels Awards

The organization's mission is "to educate, engage and provoke thoughtful discussion among people of every political persuasion and ideology. We work to ensure historically significant films are completed, broadcast, promoted, and shared in ways that reach and inform as many people as possible through robust educational and civic outreach. The Society is currently raising funds for Ken Burns’s films in production and planned over the next ten years."^[5]

The Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for Film

In 2019, a partnership between The Better Angels Society, the Library of Congress, and the Crimson Lion Foundation announced the creation of the Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for Film, an award “to recognize exemplary accomplishment in historical documentaries,” and “to recognize a filmmaker whose documentary uses original research and compelling narrative to tell stories that touch on some aspect of American history.”^[6] The grant is funded by Jeannie Lavine and her husband Jonathan Lavine, co-managing partner of Bain Capital^[7] through a $15 million gift to The Better Angels Society.^[8]

The winner receives a $200,000 finishing grant to help with the final production of the film.^[9] All films that meet the criteria are reviewed by The Better Angels Society and passed to the Internal Review Committee, who further narrow the selections. A National Jury then selects the top six before the winner and runner-up are selected by the Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden in consultation with Burns.^[10]

The first winner of the prize was “Flannery,” a film on Southern Gothic writer Flannery O’Connor by filmmakers Elizabeth Coffman and Mark Bosco.^[11] Flannery's life later inspired a Hollywood adaptation directed by Ethan Hawke.^[12] The runner-up was “Mae West: Dirty Blonde,” a film on actress Mae West that premiered as part of PBS American Masters on June 16, 2020.^[13]

In 2022, the prize had its first tie with Bella! from Jeff L. Lieberman and Jamila C. Fairley winning alongside Philly on Fire from Ross Hockrow and Tommy Walker.^[14]

In 2023, the winning film, Drop Dead City: New York on the Brink in 1975 was featured in The New York Times. The runner-up, The Disappearance of Miss Scott, is set to premiere on PBS' American Experience at a future date.^[15]

Next Generation Angels Awards

Alongside the Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for film, The Better Angels Society launched the Next Generation Angels Awards as a youth component to the larger prize,^[17] recognizing six individual documentary filmmakers in the junior and senior high school divisions, in partnership with National History Day.^[18] The winner of the Senior division receive the Anne Harrington Award, named for a late longtime friend and colleague of Ken Burns.^[19] All winners were brought to Washington D.C. to attend film screenings, an awards ceremony and tours of archives at such facilities as the American Film Institute and the Library of Congress.^[20]

Educational Outreach

In 2017, philanthropist David Rubenstein, through The Better Angels Society, pledged to support the launch of UNUM, a digital platform where users can access clips from across Burns's films, explore themes that run through American history, and relate them to issues of the present.^[21] The Better Angels Society also helped support the development of the Ken Burns Classroom on PBS Learning Media, which launched in 2019.^[22]

Georgetown University Events

In 2019, The Better Angels Society launched a partnership with Georgetown University,^[23] which began with events featuring Ken Burns and Lynn Novick previewing her film series “College Behind Bars.”^[24] Georgetown and The Better Angels Society hosted another event in 2020 featuring Burns in a conversation around immigration.^[25]

Trademark Dispute

In 2019, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled in favor of The Better Angels Society on its trademark infringement claims against New York-based nonprofit Institute for American Values, which launched its own Better Angels initiative after the 2016 presidential election as a grassroots effort to “reunify Red and Blue America.”^[26] The case was noted for demonstrating that the need to defend trademark rights extends to charitable nonprofits, so that donors know which organization they are supporting.^[27]

Films Supported

• Prohibition (2011)
• The Dust Bowl (2012)
• The Central Park Five (2012)
• The Address (2014)
• The Roosevelts: An Intimate History (2014)
• Jackie Robinson (2016)
• Defying the Nazis: The Sharps' War (2016)
• The Vietnam War (2017)
• The Mayo Clinic: Faith - Hope - Science (2018)
• College Behind Bars (2019)
• Country Music (2019)
• 9to5: The Story of a Movement (2020)
• Becoming Helen Keller (2021)
• Flood in the Desert (2022)
• Joe Papp in Five Acts (2022)
• Marian Anderson: The Whole World in Her Hands (2022)
• Plague at the Golden Gate (2022)
• The U.S. and the Holocaust (2022)
• Taken Hostage" (2022)
• The American Buffalo (2023)
• The Lie Detector (2023)
• Ruthless: Monopoly’s Secret History (2023)
• The Sun Queen (2023)
• Zora Neale Hurston: Claiming A Space(2023)

References