The Renowned Filmmaker discussing His War of Independence Documentary: ‘This Is Our Most Crucial Work’
The acclaimed documentarian is now considered beyond being a historical storyteller; his name is a franchise, a prolific creative force. With each new television endeavor premiering on the PBS network, all desire his attention.
He participated in “an astonishing number of podcasts”, he says, wrapping up of his extensive publicity circuit featuring 40 cities, 80 screenings plus countless media sessions. “With podcasts numbering in the hundreds of millions, I feel I’ve participated in a substantial portion.”
Fortunately the filmmaker is incredibly dynamic, as expressive in conversation as he is prolific during post-production. At seventy-two has traveled from Monticello to mainstream media outlets to talk about his latest monumental work: his Revolutionary War documentary, a monumental six-part, 12-hour documentary series that consumed the past decade of his life and arrived currently on public television.
Defiantly Traditional Approach
Similar to traditional cooking amidst instant gratification culture, this documentary series proudly conventional, more redolent of historical documentary classics than the era of digital documentaries and podcast series.
For the documentarian, who has built a career documenting American historical narratives including baseball, country music, jazz and national parks, the nation’s founding is not just another subject but foundational. “I said this to my co-director Sarah Botstein the other day, and she agreed: no future work will carry greater importance,” Burns contemplates by phone from New York.
Comprehensive Scholarly Work
Burns, co-directors Botstein and David Schmidt along with writer Geoffrey Ward drew upon countless written sources and primary source materials. Numerous scholars, covering various ideological backgrounds, provided on-air commentary in conjunction with distinguished researchers covering various specialties including slavery, first nations scholarship and the British empire.
Signature Documentary Style
The style of the series will feel familiar to devotees of The Civil War. The characteristic technique featured slow pans and zooms through archival photographs, abundant historical musical selections with performers voicing historical documents.
That was the moment Burns established his reputation; decades afterwards, now the doyen of documentaries, he seems able to recruit any actor he chooses. Appearing alongside Burns during a recent appearance, renowned playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda noted: “A call from Ken Burns commands immediate acceptance.”
Remarkable Ensemble
The decade-long production schedule also helped concerning availability. Filming occurred in recording spaces, in relevant places through digital platforms, a tool embraced throughout the health crisis. The director describes the experience with performer Josh Brolin, who found a few free hours while in Georgia to record his lines portraying the founding father before flying off to other professional obligations.
Brolin is joined by multiple distinguished artists, Jeff Daniels, Morgan Freeman, Paul Giamatti, Domhnall Gleeson, Amanda Gorman, Jonathan Groff, multiple generations of actors, celebrated film and stage performers, British and American talent, skilled dramatic performers, small and big screen veterans, and many others.
Burns adds: “Honestly, this could represent the finest ensemble ever assembled for any movie or television show. They do an extraordinary service. They’re not picked because they’re celebrities. I became frustrated when someone asked, ‘So why the celebrities?’. I responded, ‘These are performers.’ They represent global acting excellence and they vitalize these narratives.”
Nuanced Narrative
However, the absence of living witnesses, photography and newsreels required the filmmakers to depend substantially on primary texts, integrating individual perspectives of multiple revolutionary participants. This allowed them to present viewers beyond the prominent leaders of that era plus numerous additional crucial to understanding, several participants never even had a portrait painted.
Burns additionally pursued his individual interest for geography and cartography. “I have great affection for cartography,” he comments, “featuring increased geographical representation in this film than in all the other films I’ve done combined.”
Worldwide Consequences
The team filmed at numerous significant sites throughout the continent and in London to document environmental context and partnered extensively with re-enactors. All these elements combine to tell a story more brutal, complicated and internationally important versus conventional understanding.
The revolution, it contends, transcended provincial conflict concerning territory, taxes and political voice. Rather, the series depicts a brutal conflict that finally engaged multiple global powers and unexpectedly manifested termed “humanity’s highest ideals”.
Brother Against Brother
Early dissatisfaction and objections aimed at the crown by American colonists throughout multiple disputatious regions rapidly became a brutal civil conflict, pitting family members against each other and neighbour against neighbour. During the second installment, scholar Alan Taylor notes: “The greatest misconception about the American Revolution is that it was something that unified Americans. This ignores the truth that Americans fought each other.”
Nuanced Understanding
In his view, the revolutionary narrative that “typically suffers from excessive romance and wistful remembrance and remains shallow and fails to properly acknowledge actual events, all contributors and the widespread bloodshed.”
It was, he contends, a revolution that proclaimed the world-changing idea of inherent human rights; a brutal civil war, separating rebels and supporters; plus an international conflict, continuing previous patterns of wars between imperial nations for dominance in the New World.
Uncertain Historical Outcomes
The filmmaker also sought {to rediscover the
