Jazz on Film: With Special Focus on Jazz by Ken Burns

Abstract

In this thesis, I will introduce jazz-related movies and I will point out some connections between the musical world, American culture and history by discussing the presence of jazz in different films, touching upon feature-films, documentaries and musicals. Moreover, I put special emphasis on the importance and the controversial reception of the nineteen-hour-long documentary series Jazz by Ken Burns, as one of the director’s main aim was to reflect on American culture through jazz history.