axelrod. >> i wanted to be a filmmaker -- >> reporter: when it comes to telling stories with pictures, ken burnss a master. >> it is the dna of what i do. >> reporter: with his latest project, our manager, burns takes black and white still images from 1839 to now and conducts a powerful examination of our complex shades of gray. >> here was a chance to sort of present the whole of us in a way. all the sadness and grief, all the joy and playfulness. it was branded "ss." slave steeler. >> reporter: it tells our story. the home of the wright brothers, the triumph of jackie robinson, the horror of a lynching. >> we don't know light unless there's darkness. >> reporter: you had to pick pictures that would allow whoever is looking at them as long as they wanted to take it in. how did that affect your selections? >> we wanted to reflect every one of the 50 states. we wanted to sort of nod to the projects that we've engaged in over the nearly 50 years. >> reporter: in the last photo of lincoln, weary from the estimated 750,000 americans who died in the civil war. in the kid on the cover, in his fedora,

filmmaker ken burns turns to photos to unlock american history.s is the "cbs evening news" with norah o'donnell, reporting from the nation's capital. >> o'donnell: good evening to our viewers in the west and thank you for joining us on this thursday night. tonight, a new and serious investigation into president biden's classified documents, after we learned more of america's secrets were turned over just this morning. so we've got more on that special counsel in just a moment. plus, the new information that pwe are just getting in about lisa marie presley. but first, nearly 20 million americans are under threat for sever storms in the south. this afternoon, a large and extremely dangerous tornado ripped apart homes, leaving a trail of destruction in its path in selma, alabama. tornado warnings have been posted in several counties north of the capital city of montgomery, as the storms are moving east. this is part of the same storm system that brought torrential rains and floodwaters to much of california earlier in the week. we've got team coverag

in tonight's "eye on america" documentary filmmaker ken burns shows us why.he images of part of a new project. some are hard to watch and others you can't look away from. together they tell the story of america. here's cbs' jim axelrod. >> i wanted to be a filmmaker. >> reporter: when it comes to telling stories with pictures, ken burns is a master. >> the individual still photograph is the d.n.a. of what i do. >> reporter: with his latest project, "our america," burns takes black-and-white still images from 1839 until now and conducts a powerful examination of our complex shades of gray. >> here was a chance to sort of present the whole of us in a way, all the sadness and grief, all the joy and playfulness. it was branded with s.s.-- slave stealer. >> reporter: burns looked at 30,000 pictures to get to 250 that tell our story. the hope of the wright brothers, the triumph of jackie robinson, the horror of a lynching. >> we don't know light unless there's darkness. >> reporter: you had to pick pictures that would allow whoever is looking at them as long as the

and dayton duncan is ken burns best friend. so essentially, i was performing my presentation for the writer of the national parks america's best idea, and afterwards he said something along the lines of, you know, sheldon, what you just shared with this group, we might be able to get that into the film. i think that that definitely has a place in it. and then i began to annoy him over time by calling up and just saying, is it still there is it's still going to happen. and to make a long story short, which i'm loathe to do, because i love epic poems, i especially homer and virgil the upanishads. my background actually is classical music and literature. or as my father put it, unemployment. my father put it that way because my dad served in the infantry in korea. he was a combat veteran. he served in the air force in vietnam. and my brother served in the navy in operation iraqi freedom. so i come from a military family. so that's one of the reasons why military history speaks to me, because it's in my blood, it's in my bones. and

and there's a debate was it hoover to roosevelt or was it trump to biden ken. burns was on the podcast twice, and the first time he said oh, you know, dave, you're focused on some of the minutia of transitions but think back, we've had 233 years of uninterrupted handover of power presidents may not have wanted to leave, but they've always left no troops have been alerted, no shots have been fired. nobody's been. that's the miracle of. america. so i had him on after january 6th and i read him that statement and i said troops have been alerted shots have been fired, people have died. and he said, this is worse than hoover. roosevelt. yeah, it seems. now, the good part is that the biden team actually was the most effectively organized, the largest team and anticipated virtually everything about what happened. except for january six, the fellow that ran the transition, ted kaufman, who was biden's long aide, probably his best friend, put together to streams of work, one he called conventional issues and one he called unconventional conventional were all the things that a

that's that's some ken burns used. that is one of the a titles for his great series on prohibition a few years ago. it was just a tradition of really heavy drinking. it really began with when the pilgrims came on the mayflower. they got blown off course, they were supposed to go to virginia wound up in massachusetts. and the reason they stayed on shore as they were running out of beer and they all we got to start growing something so we can make some beer to drink and half of them died that winter. anyway, it was a bad decision probably influenced by alcohol. but anyway, then you get things are going along. i mean you think about washington and his men they didn't always have food at valley forge, but they almost always had rum and one of my favorite heroes of the revolutionary war is a man named francis marion from the lowcountry of south carolina, which i mean near charleston. he was a continental army officer and the british had already captured savannah and we're headed to charleston and he went to a dinner party.

we are commemorating the anniversary, have ken burns, a bland neutral version of this. this is revisionist. i want your guest to answer this. this was a war against south vietnam, ok? robert mcnamara said as much when they justified their involvement by pouring this aggression from within. the so-called viet cong, a pejorative term for the national liberation front, this was south vietnamese rebelling against a corrupt dictatorship. all of the fighting took place -- not all, a majority of the fighting took place in the south. the majority of the bombing took place in the south to the extent that 30 years ago the rates of cancer were dramatically different in north vietnam and south vietnam because of the uses of agent orange and other carcinogenic chemicals all in the south. host: mark, you said you had a question? caller: i want him to address this was a war against south vietnam. host: let's get a response. guest: as i mentioned earlier, this is a solo war. i don't know if it is against south vietnam but it is a war within south vietnam, but it is a war within vietnam

we are commemorating the anniversary, have ken burns, a bland neutral version of this.nist. i want your guest to answer this. this was a war against south vietnam, ok? robert mcnamara said as much when they justified their involvement by pouring this aggression from within. the so-called viet cong, a pejorative term for the national liberation front, this was south vietnamese rebelling against a corrupt dictatorship. all of the fighting took place -- not all, a majority of the fighting took place in the south. the majority of the bombing took place in the south to the extent that 30 years ago the rates of cancer were dramatically different in north vietnam and south vietnam because of the uses of agent orange and other carcinogenic chemicals all in the south. host: mark, you said you had a question? caller: i want him to address this was a war against south vietnam. host: let's get a response. guest: as i mentioned earlier, this is a solo war. i don't know if it is against south vietnam but it is a war within south vietnam, but it is a war within vietnam generally. mark

we are commemorating the anniversary, have ken burns, a bland neutral version of this.nist. i want your guest to answer this. this was a war against south vietnam, ok? robert mcnamara said as much when they justified their involvement by pouring this aggression from within. the so-called viet cong, a pejorative term for the national liberation front, this was south vietnamese rebelling against a corrupt dictatorship. all of the fighting took place -- not all, a majority of the fighting took place in the south. the majority of the bombing took place in the south to the extent that 30 years ago the rates of cancer were dramatically different in north vietnam and south vietnam because of the uses of agent orange and other carcinogenic chemicals all in the south. host: mark, you said you had a question? caller: i want him to address this was a war against south vietnam. host: let's get a response. guest: as i mentioned earlier, this is a solo war. i don't know if it is against south vietnam but it is a war within south vietnam, but it is a war within vietnam generally. mark

burned up in the atmosphere. the asteroid crossed earth's path closest to the southern tip of south america. can rest well tonight. that's that wraps up kron. 4 news at 9 o'clock. ken pam are often the distance, but they are scurrying over here to tell us more about what's happening for prone for almost out breath. just look so cool. calm and collected. thank you very much. all right. >> coming up on kron, 4 news at 10, the city of happen. bay will be holding a vigil tomorrow night for the 7 farm workers killed in monday's mass shooting. what you should know about that event and the disturbing details are emerging tonight about the farm set were the scene of the tragedy. plus, an east bay couple says their one year-old french bulldog was stolen at gunpoint while they were while they were on a grocery run. their plea tonight to get their puppy back. and got 3 days to go before the big forty-niners nfc championship game in philly. >> if the niners win and they beat the eagles, they're off to the super bowl. the to the super bowl. the fo [narrator] everyone needs quality health insurance, even if you're healthy and active. covered california is a free service to help