Ken Burns,the documentary filmmaker and co-founder of Florentine Films, will be speaking as a Marjorie Kovler Visiting Fellow at the Max Palevsky Cinema on Friday at 3 p.m. The event, which is free and open to the public, will feature a screening of selections of his work followed by a question and answer session.

Burns will meet with President Don Randel and students from Fire Escape Productions, an advanced video production class, and a film history class.

Burns’s most recent documentary, Jazz, aired in 2001 on PBS. It was his third epic documentary after The Civil War in 1990 and Baseball in 1994. Burns has also produced documentaries about Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Frank Lloyd Wright, Lewis and Clark, and Thomas Jefferson.

The Marjorie Kovler Visiting Fellows Program aims to bring distinguished speakers from the arts, sciences, and public affairs to campus. In past years, the program has hosted Gary Sinise, Betty Friedan, and Scott Turow, among others.