This powerful film tells the story of a tiny school in Putney Vermont, where students are encouraged to practice, memorize, and recite the Gettysburg Address.
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The Address, a 90-minute feature length documentary by Ken Burns, tells the story of a tiny school in Putney Vermont, the Greenwood School, where each year the students are encouraged to practice, memorize, and recite the Gettysburg Address. In its exploration of the Greenwood School, the film also unlocks the history, context and importance of President Lincoln’s most powerful address.
The Greenwood School students, boys ages 11-17, all face a range of complex learning differences that make their personal, academic and social progress extremely challenging. The Address uncovers how President Lincoln's historic words motivate and engage these students a century-and-a-half after President Lincoln delivered a speech that would go on to embolden the Union cause with some of the most stirring words ever spoken.
In conjunction with The Address, PBS and WETA, the Washington, D.C. public television station that is Burns's production partner launched a major national public outreach campaign to challenge everyone across the country, especially students, to learn about and read aloud the Gettysburg Address. The campaign utilized social media and videos from public figures, political leaders, entertainers and Lincoln historians reading the Gettysburg Address and encouraged people to submit their own videos.
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Funding provided by Bank of America; the Anne Ray Charitable Trust; Public Broadcasting Service; and members of The Better Angels Society, including The Pfeil Foundation and Robert & Beverly Grappone....