The Renowned Filmmaker on His American Revolution Project: ‘We Won’t Work on a More Important Film’
Ken Burns has become not just a filmmaker; he represents an institution, a prolific creative force. With each new project heading for the television, everybody wants an interview.
He participated in “an astonishing number of podcasts”, he remarks, wrapping up of nine-month promotional tour that included numerous locations, 80 screenings plus countless media sessions. “With podcasts numbering in the hundreds of millions, I feel I’ve participated in a substantial portion.”
Fortunately Burns is a force of nature, as expressive in conversation as he is accomplished during post-production. The veteran director has traveled from historical sites to mainstream media outlets to talk about his latest monumental work: his Revolutionary War documentary, an extensive six-episode, twelve-hour film project that consumed the past decade of his life and premiered this week through the public broadcasting service.
Timeless Filmmaking Method
Like slow cooking amidst instant gratification culture, Burns’ latest project is defiantly traditional, more redolent of historical documentary classics than the era of digital documentaries audio documentaries.
However, for the filmmaker, whose entire filmography chronicling strands of US history spanning various American subjects, the revolutionary period transcends ordinary historical coverage but fundamental. “I said this to my co-director Sarah Botstein recently, and she concurred: no future work will carry greater importance,” Burns contemplates by phone from New York.
Comprehensive Scholarly Work
Burns and his collaborators and screenwriter Geoffrey Ward referenced numerous historical volumes and primary source materials. Multiple academic experts, spanning age and perspective, provided on-air commentary in conjunction with distinguished researchers from a range of other fields including slavery, indigenous peoples’ narratives plus colonial history.
Characteristic Narrative Method
The film’s approach will seem recognizable to fans of historical documentaries. The unique approach incorporated gradual camera movements over historical images, abundant historical musical selections with performers interpreting primary sources.
This period represented the filmmaker cemented his status; a generation later, now the doyen of documentaries, he seems able to recruit any actor he chooses. Collaborating with the filmmaker at a recent event, renowned playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda noted: “A call from Ken Burns commands immediate acceptance.”
Extraordinary Talent
The extended filming period also helped regarding scheduling. Sessions happened at professional facilities, in relevant places through digital platforms, a tool embraced amid COVID restrictions. The director describes the experience with performer Josh Brolin, who made time while in Georgia to voice his character as George Washington before flying off to subsequent commitments.
Brolin is joined by numerous acclaimed actors, established Hollywood talent, Domhnall Gleeson, Amanda Gorman, Jonathan Groff, Tom Hanks, Ethan Hawke, Maya Hawke, accomplished dramatic artists, international acting community, skilled dramatic performers, television and film stars, plus additional notable names.
Burns adds: “Truly, this might be the most exceptional group recruited for any project. Their work is exceptional. Selection wasn’t based on fame. I got so angry when somebody said, regarding the famous participants. I explained, ‘These are artists.’ They represent global acting excellence and they animate historical material.”
Historical Complexity
Nevertheless, the lack of surviving participants, photography and newsreels required the filmmakers to depend substantially on the written word, integrating the first-person voices of multiple revolutionary participants. This methodology permitted to introduce audiences not just the famous founders of the revolution plus numerous additional crucial to understanding, numerous individuals lack visual representation.
Burns also indulged his personal passion for territorial understanding. “I love maps,” he notes, “and there are more maps in this project compared to previous works I’ve done combined.”
Global Significance
The production crew recorded at numerous significant sites across North America plus English locations to document environmental context and worked extensively with historical interpreters. Various aspects converge to tell a story more brutal, complicated and internationally important versus conventional understanding.
The film maintains, represented more than local dispute about property, revenue and governance. Instead the film portrays a brutal conflict that eventually involved more than two dozen nations and surprisingly represented described as “the noble aspirations of humankind”.
Brother Against Brother
Early dissatisfaction and objections aimed at the crown by American colonists across thirteen rebellious territories soon descended into a bloody domestic struggle, pitting family members against each other and turning communities into battlegrounds. In episode two, the historian Alan Taylor observes: “The primary misunderstanding about the American Revolution centers on assuming it constituted a unifying experience for colonists. This ignores the truth that it was a civil war among Americans.”
Sophisticated Interpretation
For him, the independence account that “generally is overwhelmed by emotionalism and idealization and lacks depth and doesn’t have the respect the historical reality, all contributors and the incredible violence of it.
It was, he contends, a revolution that proclaimed the revolutionary principle of fundamental personal liberties; a vicious internal conflict, separating rebels and supporters; and a worldwide engagement, another installment in a sequence of conflicts between Britain, France and Spain for the “prize of North America”.
Uncertain Historical Outcomes
Burns also wanted {to rediscover the
