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Project Descriptions

America, Whaling, and the World

July 1, 2009 - March 31, 2010 | Media and Technology

INTO THE DEEP: America, Whaling & the World: a two-hour documentary film for national broadcast on PBS in 2010, directed by Ric Burns and co-produced by Steeplechase Films, American Experience, and WGBH/Boston, explores the history, culture and significance of the American whaling industry from its 17th century origins in drift and shore-whaling, through the golden age of deep ocean whaling in the 18th and 19th centuries, and on to the industry's demise in the decades following the American Civil War. Combining stunning archival material with powerful on-camera interviews, evocative live cinematography, dramatic reenactments, and underwater footage of whales at sea, the film will bring alive the complex reality and extraordinary experience of American whaling as the nation rose to the threshold of global power, all the while registering the larger forces, economic, social, cultural, technological and environmental, that shaped and propelled American Whaling.

Funders

NEH
Award Number: TR-50085-09
Funding Amount: 725000

TEAM MEMBERS

  • Ric Burns
    Principal Investigator
    City Lore: NY Center for Urban Folk Culture
  • Discipline: Ecology, forestry, and agriculture | History/policy/law | Life science | Technology
    Audience: General Public | Museum/ISE Professionals
    Environment Type: Media and Technology | Broadcast Media

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