If you missed it earlier this week, you can now watch Ken Burns’ new 2-part/4-hour Jackie Robinson documentary that aired on PBS on April 11 and 12.
Titled simply "Jackie Robinson," the film – co-directed and produced by Ken Burns, Sarah Burns and David McMahon – memorializes the life of the legend, who was the first African American player in Major League Baseball.
“Jackie Robinson is the most important figure in our nation’s most important game,” said Ken Burns. “He gave us our first lasting progress in civil rights since the Civil War and, ever since I finished my BASEBALL series in 1994, I’ve been eager to make a stand-alone film about the life of this courageous American. There was so much more to say not only about Robinson’s barrier-breaking moment in 1947, but about how his upbringing shaped his intolerance for any form of discrimination and how after his baseball career he spoke out tirelessly against racial injustice, even after his star had begun to dim.”
In addition to family members Rachel, Sharon and David Robinson, "Jackie Robinson" features interviews with President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama; former Dodgers teammates Don Newcombe, Carl Erskine and Ralph Branca; writers Howard Bryant and Gerald Early; Harry Belafonte; Tom Brokaw; and Carly Simon.
Jamie Foxx is the voice of Jackie Robinson, reading excerpts from his newspaper columns, personal letters and autobiographies.
The documentary is a production of Florentine Films and WETA, Washington, D.C. in association with the MLB.
Both part 1 and Part 2 of the 4-hour documentary are embedded below: