Burlington County - Roebling - Roebling Museum and Florentine Films preset "Brooklyn Bridge"

Saturday, September 22 – Burlington County

 ROEBLING MUSEUM TO PREMIERE NEWLY RE-MASTERED “BROOKLYN BRIDGE,” KEN BURNS’S FIRST FILM –

 

^{SPECIAL OUTDOOR SCREENING SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 6:00 P.M.}

    The Roebling Museum will premiere a newly restored “Brooklyn Bridge,” the first film by acclaimed filmmaker Ken Burns, at a special outdoor screening at the museum on September 22^nd at 6:00 p.m.

    The Roebling Museum is proud to partner with PBS, WHYY and WNET to present the restored film and to host a Q&A about this influential Academy Award-nominated documentary. A special guest moderator will lead the discussion with Daniel White, who oversaw the restoration for Florentine Films, Burns’ production company.

    In “Brooklyn Bridge,’’ Burns tells the story of the 14-year construction of the span, then the longest in the world, by suspension bridge innovator John A. Roebling, his son Washington and daughter-in-law Emily. Building the bridge cost John A. Roebling his life and Washington Roebling his health, but the Brooklyn Bridge has become a cultural touchstone with power and resonance undiminished over its 135-year history. 

    The outdoor screening will be held on the grounds of the Roebling Museum, in Roebling, N.J., the company town built by the John A. Roebling’s Sons Company in 1905. The Museum is located in the historic gatehouse to the Roebling steel and wire mill, where the company manufactured wire for the Golden Gate and George Washington bridges.  

    The remastered “Brooklyn Bridge” film features pristine color and sound. The film was restored in 2017 using the original camera negative AB rolls that were retrieved from the George Eastman Museum in Rochester, N.Y. Each roll was inspected, cleaned and repaired and scanned at 4K resolution. Once that process was complete, the files were assembled to perfectly match the original broadcast cut. The restored version has 10% more image area than the original broadcast due to early cropping for standard definition broadcast. 

In “Brooklyn Bridge,’’ made between 1977 and 1981 for a total of $180,000, Burns introduced the practice of pan-and-zoom on archival photos - what he calls “waking them up’’ but is more widely known as “the Ken Burns effect.’’ In this film, narrated by historian David McCullough, Burns also pioneered the use of voice actors to read letters, newspaper articles and other contemporaneous sources: in “Brooklyn Bridge,’’ actor Paul Roebling reads the letters of his great-grandfather, Washington A. Roebling. 

    Tickets to the film screening are $15 for adults, $12 for seniors 62 and over, $5 for children ages 3-12. A $35 Friends and Family ticket is also available which includes up to 5 people ages 3 and over. Children 2 and under are Free. Tickets are purchasable in advance at the Museum or on roeblingmuseum.org. The event is BYOB: Bring your own blanket!