PBS to air documentaries on Woodstock and the human genome

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. – A 50th anniversary look at Woodstock and a Ken Burns series on the human genome will be among PBS’ upcoming documentaries, the public TV service said Monday.

The two-hour documentary on Woodstock will air in 2019 and will examine the events that led up to the three-day festival that would become one of the defining moments of the tumultuous 1960s.

The documentary will be part of PBS’ “American Experience” series and is being directed by Barak Goodman, who is teaming up with Burns on the genome series.

“The Gene: An Intimate History” will be a three-hour documentary series based on a book of the same name by Siddhartha Mukherjee.

Burns previously produced a documentary on Mukherjee’s “Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies” book.

PBS says the series will weave science, social history and “personal stories” to explain what we know about human genetics, including disease and the ethical debates over gene editing. It is scheduled to air in 2020.

Airing in 2019 will be a documentary series from Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. that examines the post-Civil War era of Reconstruction. The four-hour series “Reconstruction: America After the Civil War” will examine the period’s lasting impact on U.S. culture.