Sarah Botstein
Salimah El-Amin
Megan Ruffe
Buddy Squires
Join Fraunces Tavern Museum for an evening discussion on Ken Burns' The American Revolution documentary!
Opening with a screening of select highlights from the six-part documentary, we will then discuss the making of the film with Producer and Co-Director Sarah Botstein, Producer Salimah El-Amin, Co-Producer Megan Ruffe, and Director of Photography Buddy Squires. The panel will illuminate the process of creating the documentary and their experience of telling the story of the American Revolution through film.*
Tickets
Public Tickets | $10
Museum Members | FREE
Museum members: Please input your membership code at checkout for the membership discount!
The Speakers:
Sarah Botstein has worked with Ken Burns for nearly 30 years and produced some of his most popular and acclaimed documentaries on PBS. Most recently, she produced and co-directed The American Revolution. Her previous work includes The U.S. and the Holocaust, Hemingway, College Behind Bars, The Vietnam War, Prohibition, The War, and Jazz.
Botstein also works closely with PBS LearningMedia to develop educational materials as part of the Ken Burns Classroom, and she was an original contributor to Ken Burns's UNUM.
Botstein is now working on a three-part series about Lyndon B. Johnson and the Great Society.
For 25 years, Salimah El-Amin has worked on numerous award-winning films and television programs. Most recently, she served as a producer for The American Revolution, a six-part documentary series that examines America's war for independence and the founding of a nation. Other notable projects she has contributed to include Hemingway, College Behind Bars, The Vietnam War, Fahrenheit 9/11, Taxi to the Dark Side, The Blues, and The Trials of Henry Kissinger. She has received several awards for her work, including two Emmy Awards in research.
Salimah holds both bachelor's and master's degrees in Anthropology and Media Studies from Rutgers University, Columbia University, and The New School.
Megan Ruffe is a co-producer on The American Revolution and has been with Florentine Films since 2013. She began her career as an apprentice editor and production associate on The Vietnam War (2017), later serving as post-production supervisor on College Behind Bars (2019) and field producing for Hemingway (2021) and Benjamin Franklin (2022). She also wrote and produced UNUM Shorts, a digital series featured in The New York Times and The Washington Post. In addition to her work with Florentine Films, Ruffe directed and edited La Frontière, a documentary exploring Maine’s borderlands. She is originally from Pennsylvania, just a few miles from where George Washington crossed the Delaware.
Buddy Squires is an Oscar-nominated filmmaker, Emmy-winning director of photography and a founding member of Florentine Films. His more than 250 screen credits include two Oscar winners, seven Academy Award nominees, and eleven Emmy Award winning productions.
Buddy Squires’ work is frequently screened at major festivals around the world including Cannes, Sundance, Telluride, New York, Tribeca, Venice, and Toronto. His projects have won Peabody Awards, duPont Columbia Awards, and Critics Choice Documentary Awards.
Squires has served on the board of the American Society of Cinematographers and the Executive Committee of the Documentary Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
