The 2023 Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for Film opened for submissions on February 15 and closed on May 15, 2023. Read on for more information on selection criteria and how to apply next year.

Does your film qualify?

1. The project must be a late-stage documentary film with a running time of 50 minutes or more.

2. The subject matter of the film must be American history.

3. The applicant must have previously produced or directed at least one long-form documentary for broadcast or online distribution.

4. Industrial, promotional, branded content, or instructional films are not eligible.

If you have questions about the submission process, please direct them to submissions@betterangelssociety.org.

A National Award for History Documentary Filmmaking

Documentary films on issues of importance to our nation create space for us to have mutually informed conversations about our history. The documentary film medium is perhaps the most relevant and powerful means by which we can explore our history and ourselves. The lessons learned from our past inform and inspire our future.

Bringing this critical educational tool to as broad an American audience as possible is our goal.

This annual national prize, now in its fifth year, is designed to provide finishing funds, including outreach and marketing, for feature-length U.S. historical documentaries in the tradition of Ken Burns.

The establishment of the Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for Film reflects the critical role history documentary film plays today in educating Americans about the American story. The Prize is bestowed by Librarian Carla Hayden and filmmaker Ken Burns who will co-chair a national jury of esteemed scholars, filmmakers, and journalists. The Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for Film joins other awards bestowed by the Library of Congress including the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, the Prize for American Fiction, and the Kluge Prize for the Study of Humanity.

The Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for Film is made possible through a generous donation by Jeannie and Jonathan Lavine. The Crimson Lion/Lavine Family Foundation invests in philanthropic efforts directed at leveling the playing field for individuals and families. The Foundation supports organizations that strengthen society through education, research, innovation, public policy, direct service, and advocacy. As ever more Americans learn history watching historical documentary films, the Crimson Lion/Lavine Family Foundation makes possible this Library of Congress national prize with The Better Angels Society. The Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for Film will support the creation of exemplary films that live on as enduring educational assets for all Americans, enriching the democracy and informing our understanding of the American story.

The 2023 Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for Film Finalists are:

Click on each image for additional information and to watch a first-look trailer.

WINNER: DROP DEAD CITY – NEW YORK ON THE BRINK IN 1975

Directed by Peter Yost and Michael Rohatyn

DROP DEAD CITY documents the NYC Fiscal Crisis of 1975, an extraordinary, overlooked episode in urban American history that saw an already-crumbling city of 8 million people brought to the edge of bankruptcy and social chaos by a perfect storm of debt, greed, ambitious social policy, and poor governance.

RUNNER-UP: THE DISAPPEARANCE OF MISS SCOTT

Directed by Nicole London

THE DISAPPEARANCE OF MISS SCOTT tells the story of the incredible Hazel Scott, jazz darling, Hollywood star, and civil rights pioneer years before the formal civil rights movement began. The first African American with a network TV show. Wrongfully accused of Communist sympathies, her career shattered. Soon after, she was in exile, erased.

THE HARVEST: INTEGRATING MISSISSIPPI’S SCHOOLS

Produced by Douglas A. Blackmon and Sam Pollard

THE HARVEST is a deeply personal documentary depicting one southern town’s painful struggle to integrate its public schools at the height of the civil rights movement and the manifold repercussions of those events continuing to the present day. The film is grounded in journalistic inquiry and historical scholarship.

THE INCOMPARABLE MR. BUCKLEY

Directed by Barak Goodman

The Incomparable Mr. Buckley is a biography of one of the 20th Century’s most charismatic, controversial and influential political figures, William F. Buckley, Jr. Featuring a large cast of contemporaries, acolytes, and critics, the film reveals how WFB practically invented the modern conservative movement.

MAX ROACH: THE DRUM ALSO WALTZES

Directed by Sam Pollard and Ben Shapiro

MAX ROACH: THE DRUM ALSO WALTZES explores the life and music of the legendary drummer, bandleader, and social activist – a remarkable series of creative peaks, personal struggles, and reinventions – from Jim Crow to the Civil Rights years, from the heady days of post-war modern jazz to hip hop and beyond.

MODERNISM INC.: THE ELIOT NOYES DESIGN STORY

Directed by Jason Cohn

MODERNISM INC. tells the story of Eliot Noyes, the influential architect of comprehensive corporate design programs in the mid-20th Century. Noyes is most noted for his work at IBM, where he transmitted Modernist thinking, set the standards for corporate design, and played a critical role in the rise of computers.

2023 Prize Jury

Dr. Carla Hayden – CHAIR

Dr. Annette Gordon-Reed

Dawn Porter

Sally Rosenthal

Dr. Claudio Saunt

2023 Honorary Committee

The Honorary Committee is a distinguished group of thought leaders drawn from all corners of the media and cultural landscape, united by a common interest in supporting work that highlights our country’s history through documentary film. The members of the Honorary Committee each have large and unique spheres of influence that help spread the mission of the Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for Film, making them a vital part of the Prize community. The members of the 2023 Honorary Committee represent a varied cross-section of our nation’s culture, including the written word, music, film, historiography, and news media.

Richard Blanco

Patricia Cardoso

Dr. Rebecca Erbelding 

Christopher John Farley

Kahlil Greene

Dr. Claudrena Harold

Patricia de Stacy Harrison

Dr. Stephanie Jones-Rogers

Michiko Kakutani

Paula Kerger

Wynton Marsalis

Sharon Rockefeller

Luis Antonio Ubiñas

Ilyon Woo 

Past Winners and Finalists

BELLA!

Winner
Directed by Jeff L. Lieberman
In 1970, Bella Abzug entered Congress ready for a fight. With her trademark hat and Bronx swagger, the first elected Feminist upended the Washington patriarchy, battling for women’s equality, civil rights, and LGBTQ+ protections. Despite Nixon and the FBI’s attempts to silence her, Bella persisted – revolutionizing the blueprint for America.

Philly-on-Fire-Still

PHILLY ON FIRE

Winner
Directed by Ross Hockrow, Tommy Walker
On May 13, 1985, the Philadelphia Police dropped a bomb on a row house, burning down an entire neighborhood. 11 people died, five of them children. 61 homes were destroyed, 250 people became homeless. How could this have happened?

Virgil-Thomson-Still

VIRGIL THOMSON: CREATING THE AMERICAN SOUND

Finalist
Directed by John Paulson
Dubbed “father of American music” by Aaron Copland, composer/critic Virgil Thomson (1896-1989) is largely unknown to the public. This biography, featuring new and archival music performances, establishes Thomson’s originality, versatility and influence not only as creator of the American classical sound but as an insightful critic of our cultural scene.

IMAGINING THE INDIAN: THE FIGHT AGAINST NATIVE AMERICAN MASCOTING

Finalist
Directed by
Aviva Kempner and Ben West
Imagining the Indian: The Fight Against Native American Mascoting aims to inform and educate about the use of Native American names, logos, and mascots in sports and beyond, which has had damaging effects on the self-esteem of Native people. It is a comprehensive examination of the long-standing movement against mascoting.

RAYMOND LEWIS: L.A. LEGEND

Finalist
Directed by Ryan Polomski (Dean Prator, Co-Director)
RAYMOND LEWIS: L.A. LEGEND tells the true story of the mythical basketball phenom from Watts, California — who many say was blackballed from the NBA in the early 70’s for demanding equality — and the never-told-before tale of his unlikely and heartbreaking journey towards becoming a hoops legend.

Cannabis Buyers Club Still

CANNABIS BUYERS CLUB

Finalist

Directed by Kip Andersen and Chris O’Connell
Cannabis Buyers Club tells the story of Dennis Peron, a Vietnam vet who returned from war to become San Francisco’s biggest pot dealer. After losing his lover to AIDS, Peron launched the first public cannabis dispensary in the nation, uniting a community and leading the fight to legalize medical marijuana.

Congratulations to the 2021 Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for Film Winner: Gradually, then Suddenly: The Bankruptcy of Detroit, Directed by Sam Katz and James McGovern.

GRADUALLY, THEN SUDDENLY: THE BANKRUPTCY OF DETROIT

Directed by Sam Katz and James McGovern
Winner
Once heralded as the spirit of American manufacturing, music, and democracy, Detroit kicked its fiscal can down the road for decades plummeting into insolvency, culminating in the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history. GRADUALLY, THEN SUDDENLY is the inside story of how a state-appointed Emergency Manager and the people of this iconic American city– confronting financial ruin–followed a treacherous path towards a new beginning.

FREE CHOL SOO LEE

Directed by Julie Ha and Eugene Yi
Runner-up
After a Korean immigrant is wrongly convicted of a 1973 San Francisco Chinatown gang murder, Asian Americans unite as never before to free Chol Soo Lee. A former street hustler becomes the symbol for a landmark movement. But once out, he self-destructs, threatening the movement’s legacy and the man himself.

THE PICTURE TAKER

Directed by Phil Bertelsen
Finalist
A million snaps of the shutter, six decades of history, Ernest Withers’ photos captured southern Black life and spread the news of civil rights.  They also appeared in FBI files, provided by informant ME-338-R:  Ernest Withers. DOUBLE EXPOSURE unravels his mystery and motives, raising questions about power and patriotism in very troubled times.

EXPOSING MUYBRIDGE

Directed by Marc Shaffer
Finalist
Brilliant, ambitious and mischievous, the 19th-century photographer Eadweard Muybridge’s breakthrough photographs of running horses set the course for the development of cinema and transformed the camera into a machine of unmatched perception and persuasion. But hiding in Muybridge’s work are clues that provoke an enduring question: Can we believe what we see in a photograph?

THE FIVE DEMANDS

Directed by Greta Schiller
Finalist
THE FIVE DEMANDS tells the story of the 1969 student strike at the City College of New York that changed the face of higher education. While the late Sixties are known as an era of student activism, largely by white, middle-class students against the war in Vietnam, these Black and Puerto Rican students were at the vanguard of a little-known national Black student movement that transformed the culture, mission, and curriculum of higher education.

BONNIE BLUE: JAMES COTTON’S LIFE IN THE BLUES

Directed by Bestor Cram
Finalist
Born in 1935 on Bonnie Blue plantation in Tunica, Mississippi, apprenticing with Sonny Boy Williamson II and Howlin’ Wolf, and schooled by Muddy Waters, James ‘Super Harp’ Cotton became a mentor to harp players around the globe as he brought the delta blues into mainstream rock ‘n roll. Cotton’s music made history; his musical voice was unique, and the blues were never the same.

HOLD YOUR FIRE

Winner
Directed by Stefan Forbes
In 1973, four young men stealing guns for self-defense were tragically mistaken by the NYPD for violent revolutionaries. A gunfight ensued and a police officer was killed. Despite the NYPD’s policy of deadly force, Dr. Harvey Schlossberg managed to resolve the conflict peacefully and invent modern hostage negotiation.

CURED

Runner Up
Directed by Patrick Sammon & Bennett Singer
Until 1973, doctors automatically classified every gay man and lesbian as mentally ill. CURED tells the David-versus-Goliath story of the activists who challenged this diagnosis — and won.

AFTER ANTARCTICA

Finalist
Directed by Tasha Van Zandt
After Antarctica follows polar explorer Will Steger’s journey as an eyewitness to the changes in the polar regions of our planet. Thirty years after his expedition across Earth’s coldest continent, Steger is not only known for being the first in history to complete this feat – he is also the last.

BEETHOVEN IN BEIJING

Finalist
Directed by
Jennifer Lin & Sharon Mullally
Dispatched by President Nixon in 1973 to help open the “bamboo curtain” separating the Chinese and American people, the iconic Philadelphia Orchestra now turns to its past as a cultural ambassador to strengthen its precarious future at home.

PUNCH 9 FOR HAROLD WASHINGTON

Finalist
Directed by Joe Winston
“Punch 9 for Harold Washington” will tell a national audience, for the first time, the story of how Washington became Chicago’s first African-American mayor, opened up government to everyone, and paved the way for future political leaders, including Barack Obama.

STORMING CAESARS PALACE

Finalist

Directed by Hazel Gurland-Pooler

STORMING CAESARS PALACE is an intimate portrait of Ruby Duncan who built a grassroots anti-poverty movement of low-income black mothers in Las Vegas. Championing a Universal Basic Income in 1969, they led their own War on Poverty — and almost won, challenging notions of the “Welfare Queen.”

FLANNERY

Winner
A gothic story fueled by televangelists and girls with wooden legs, “Flannery” covers the biography of writer Flannery O’Connor with archival footage and creative motion graphics. A devout Catholic who walked with crutches, O’Connor wrote about the enduring prejudices of the post-war south. Mystery and manners abound in this work. Directed by Elizabeth Coffman and Mark Bosco, S.J.

MAE WEST: DIRTY BLONDE

Runner-Up
MAE WEST: DIRTY BLONDE is a feature-length historical documentary film developed by Peeled Grape Productions LLC for PBS’ American Masters. The film explores the extraordinary career and legacy of this complex cultural figure, who left an indelible imprint on American entertainment as a writer, performer, and agitator for social change. Directed by Sally Rosenthal & Julia Marchesi.

MR. SOUL!

Finalist
Before Oprah, before Arsenio, there was Mr. SOUL! An in-depth look at the late 1960s WNET public television series SOUL! and its producer Ellis Haizlip, who provided expanded images of African Americans on television, shifting the gaze from inner-city poverty and violence to the vibrancy of the Black Arts Movement. Directed by Melissa Haizlip.

THE ADVENTURES OF
SAUL BELLOW

Finalist
This is the first major documentary on one of America’s greatest writers, Saul Bellow.  The film examines Bellow’s influence on American literature, explores Bellow as a public figure, and looks at how he dealt with key issues of his time, including race, gender, and the Jewish and immigrant experience. Directed by Asaf Galay.

THE FIRST
ANGRY MAN

Finalist
The First Angry Man tells the story of political outsider Howard Jarvis and the California property tax revolt he led during Governor Jerry Brown’s first term in 1978. Historians credit Jarvis’ campaign for Proposition 13 with triggering a national anti-tax, anti-government movement with immeasurable and enduring consequences. Directed by Jason Cohn & Camille Servan-Schreiber.

9 TO 5: THE STORY
OF A MOVEMENT

Finalist
This historical documentary tells the story of a grassroots national movement of women clerical workers who endured low pay, disrespect and sexual harassment. By the early 1970s, they had had enough. They gathered their courage, rose up against their bosses and started fighting for a better life. Directed by Steven Bognar & Julia Reichert.

2022 Prize Ceremony