BOSTON — Ken Burns, the award-winning documentary filmmaker of Roosevelts, The Civil War, and The Vietnam War, today endorsed Ed Markey for U.S. Senate. The announcement comes as mail-in voting begins in the primary election, and the Markey campaign is building on its strong momentum.

Watch Ken Burns’ video endorsement here.

Burns will also host a fundraising event with Senator Markey on Friday, August 21 from 5-6 PM EST. Sign up to join Senator Markey and Ken Burns here.

“Like other critical periods in American history, we urgently need bold political leadership, wisdom, and proven experience to guide us through this time to better days ahead. Ed Markey is that courageous leader for Massachusetts: a champion for social justice, for universal health care, for combating global warming with the Green New Deal, for preventing nuclear proliferation, and for moving us forward to a more peaceful country and world,” Ken Burns said in his video endorsement. “We need Ed in the United States Senate now more than ever.”

Ken Burns has been making award-winning documentary films for over 40 years. Since the Academy Award nominated Brooklyn Bridge in 1981, Burns has gone on to direct and produce some of the most acclaimed historical documentaries ever made. Burns’ films have won 16 Emmy Awards and two Oscar nominations, and in September of 2008, at the News & Documentary Emmy Awards, Ken was honored by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

“Ken Burns is a brilliant, thoughtful documentarian who is every bit as much of a changemaker as those he has made his name chronicling. Ken Burns understands American history with a depth and thoughtfulness that few others have. This understanding is what, I believe, has led him to hold such strong convictions of the need to take a progressive path forward in this moment of historic problems. He is a strong advocate and ally in this fight for a better future, and I am truly honored to have his endorsement,” said Senator Ed Markey.

Ed Markey has served in the United States Senate since winning the special election in 2013 and has amassed a deep record on environmental, racial justice, gun safety, and consumer protection issues. He founded the Congressional Alzheimer’s Task Force and authored the National Alzheimer’s Project Act, which mandates that the federal government put in place a plan to address Alzheimer’s disease by 2025. Raised in Malden, Ed Markey has always stood up for the priorities of Massachusetts.

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