PCC Participates in New Ken Burns Documentary “Jackie Robinson”

Pasadena City College recently participated in the production of “Jackie Robinson,” a documentary from acclaimed filmmaker Ken Burns on the life and times of PCC’s most famous alumnus.

Slated for release April 2016 on PBS, the two-part series chronicles Robinson’s life – from his hardscrabble upbringing in rural Georgia to April 15, 1947, the day he broke professional baseball’s infamous color line by becoming the first African-American to play for the major leagues in the modern era.

The latter part of the documentary focuses on Robinson’s post-baseball days, when he continued his fight against racial discrimination as an advocate for the civil rights movement. Robinson passed away in 1972.

Currently, Burns and his company, Florentine Films, are in post-production for “Jackie Robinson.” PCC supplied images – scanned from archival yearbooks – of Robinson during his days as a student at Pasadena Junior College (PJC in 1954 would change its name to Pasadena City College).

From 1937 to 1939, Robinson was a four-sport star athlete at PJC and was elected to the All-Southland Junior College Team as a baseball player. After graduating in 1939, Robinson transferred to UCLA, where he became the university’s first athlete to letter in four sports: baseball, basketball, football, and track.

“We’ve collected almost 10,000 archival photographs for our documentary, but it hasn’t been easy finding images of Jackie Robinson before he became famous as a star at UCLA,” said Sarah Burns, co-director/writer of the film and Burns’ daughter. “So we’re grateful that Pasadena City College was able to provide us with images from Jackie’s junior college yearbook to use in the film.”

Perhaps the most acclaimed documentarian in America, Ken Burns has directed 25 films, some of which have garnered him four Emmy Awards and numerous Academy-Award nominations. His 11-hour, 1990 film “The Civil War is widely considered one of the best American documentaries ever produced.

“Jackie Robinson” is directed by Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, and David McMahon; and written by McMahon and Sarah Burns.