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Ken Burns has evolved into more than a filmmaker; he is a brand, a prolific creative force. With each new television endeavor heading for the television, everyone seeks his attention.

He participated in “more fucking podcasts than I ever thought possible”, he says, wrapping up of his marathon promotional journey featuring numerous locations, numerous film showings and innumerable conversations. “I think there are 340.1m podcasts, one for every American, and I’ve done half of them.”

Happily the filmmaker is incredibly dynamic, equally articulate in interviews as he is prolific in the editing room. The 72-year-old has gone everywhere from Monticello to mainstream media outlets to talk about one of his most ambitious projects: this historical epic, an extensive six-episode, twelve-hour film project that consumed a substantial portion of his recent years and premiered this week on PBS.

Classic Documentary Style

Similar to traditional cooking in today’s rapid-consumption era, Burns’ latest project is defiantly traditional, reminiscent of historical documentary classics rather than contemporary digital documentaries audio documentaries.

However, for the filmmaker, who has built a career exploring national heritage covering diverse cultural topics, the nation’s founding is not just another subject but essential. “As I mentioned to directing partner Sarah Botstein the other day, and she agreed: this represents our most significant project Burns contemplates by phone from New York.

Extensive Historical Investigation

Burns, co-directors Botstein and David Schmidt and screenwriter Geoffrey Ward referenced countless written sources and other historical materials. Numerous scholars, spanning age and perspective, contributed scholarly insights along with leading scholars representing multiple disciplines such as enslavement studies, Native American history plus colonial history.

Distinctive Filmmaking Approach

The film’s approach will feel familiar to viewers of Burns’ earlier work. Its distinctive style featured gradual camera movements over historical images, extensive employment of contemporary scores and actors voicing historical documents.

Those projects established the filmmaker cemented his status; a generation later, currently the elder statesman of documentary filmmaking, he can apparently summon numerous talented actors. Participating with Burns during a recent appearance, renowned playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda noted: “A call from Ken Burns commands immediate acceptance.”

Remarkable Ensemble

The extended filming period provided advantages in terms of flexibility. Filming occurred in studios, on location through digital platforms, an approach adopted during the pandemic. Burns explains collaborating with actor Josh Brolin, who scheduled a brief window during his travels to perform his role as George Washington before flying off to subsequent commitments.

The cast includes Kenneth Branagh, Hugh Dancy, Claire Danes, respected performing veterans, diverse creative professionals, household names and rising talent, celebrated film and stage performers, international acting community, skilled dramatic performers, Wendell Pierce, Matthew Rhys, Liev Schreiber, Dan Stevens, Meryl Streep.

Burns adds: “Honestly, this could represent the finest ensemble ever assembled for any movie or television show. Their work is exceptional. Their celebrity status wasn’t the criteria. I became frustrated when someone asked, about the prominent cast. I go, ‘These are actors.’ They represent global acting excellence and they animate historical material.”

Nuanced Narrative

Nevertheless, the absence of living witnesses, photography and newsreels compelled the production to lean heavily on historical documents, weaving together individual perspectives of nearly 200 individual historic figures. This allowed them to show spectators not just the famous founders of the founders but also to “dozens of others who are seminal to the story”, many of whom lack visual representation.

Burns also indulged his individual interest for maps and spatial representation. “I love maps,” he notes, “with greater cartographic content throughout this series versus earlier productions throughout my entire career.”

International Impact

The production crew recorded across multiple important places across North America plus English locations to preserve geographical atmosphere and partnered extensively with re-enactors. Various aspects converge to present a narrative more bloody, multifaceted and world-changing than the one taught in schools.

The revolution, it contends, transcended provincial conflict over land, taxation and representation. Instead the film portrays a blood-soaked struggle that ultimately drew in multiple global powers and unexpectedly manifested described as “humanity’s highest ideals”.

Civil War Reality

Early dissatisfaction and objections directed toward Britain by colonial residents throughout multiple disputatious regions quickly evolved into a bloody domestic struggle, pitting family members against each other and creating local enmities. During the second installment, scholar Alan Taylor notes: “The primary misunderstanding concerning independence struggle is that it was something a consolidating event for colonists. This ignores the truth that it was a civil war among Americans.”

Historical Complexity

According to his perspective, the revolutionary narrative that “generally suffers from excessive romance and idealization and lacks depth and doesn’t have the respect actual events, every individual involved and the widespread bloodshed.”

It was, he contends, a revolution that proclaimed the world-changing idea of fundamental personal liberties; a vicious internal conflict, dividing revolutionaries and royalists; and a global war, another installment in a sequence of wars between imperial nations for control of the continent.

Unpredictable Historical Moments

The filmmaker also sought {to rediscover the