Ken Burns, American Filmmaker

Explorers
Three years after Baseball, Burns tackled another great American story when he made Lewis and Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery. The series explored how the 1803 expedition came to be and what it may have been like to traverse half a continent. Burns breathes new life into an old story by peppering the narrative with fascinating details, like Lewis' comment after he and the expedition were chased by a series of enormous, aggressive bears who proved impervious to rifle fire. "I find the curiosity of our men with respect to this animal is pretty much satisfied," he wrote in his diary.