Documentary filmmaker whose best known works include The Civil War (1990), Baseball (1994) and Jazz (2001). He received Academy Award nominations for his films Brooklyn Bridge from 1981 and The Statue of Liberty from 1985.
He worked in a record store to pay for his tuition at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts.
His 1994 documentary series Baseball won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Informational Series and his 2009 series The National Parks: America's Best Idea won an Emmy for Outstanding Non-fiction Series.
He was married to Amy Stechler Burns from 1982 to 1993 and in 2003, he married Julie Deborah Brown. He has two daughters named Sarah and Lily.
In 1997, he released a three-part documentary series about the life of former U.S. President Thomas Jefferson.
