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The acclaimed documentarian has evolved into not just a historical storyteller; his name is a franchise, an unparalleled production entity. With each new project arriving on the small screen, everyone seeks a part of him.

He participated in “an astonishing number of podcasts”, he notes, approaching the conclusion of his extensive publicity circuit comprising 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.”

Fortunately the filmmaker is incredibly dynamic, as loquacious behind the mic as he is prolific while filmmaking. The 72-year-old has appeared at locations ranging from prestigious venues to mainstream media outlets to talk about one of his most ambitious projects: The American Revolution, a monumental six-part, 12-hour documentary series that dominated the past decade of his life and arrived recently on PBS.

Timeless Filmmaking Method

Comparable to methodical preparation amidst instant gratification culture, this documentary series proudly conventional, more redolent of historical documentary classics rather than contemporary digital documentaries audio documentaries.

However, for the filmmaker, whose entire filmography exploring national heritage spanning various American subjects, its origin story transcends ordinary historical coverage but foundational. “I recently told collaborator Sarah Botstein the other day, and she agreed: no future work will carry greater importance,” Burns states from his New York base.

Extensive Historical Investigation

Burns and his collaborators along with writer Geoffrey Ward drew upon countless written sources and other historical materials. Multiple academic experts, covering various ideological backgrounds, provided on-air commentary along with leading scholars from a range of other fields such as enslavement studies, Native American history and imperial studies.

Distinctive Filmmaking Approach

The style of the series will feel familiar to fans of historical documentaries. The unique approach incorporated gradual camera movements across still photos, generous use of period music featuring talent reading diaries, letters and speeches.

This period represented Burns established his reputation; years later, currently the elder statesman of documentary filmmaking, he can apparently summon virtually any performer. Collaborating with the filmmaker during a recent appearance, renowned playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda noted: “Nobody declines an invitation from Ken Burns.”

Extraordinary Talent

The lengthy creation process also helped in terms of flexibility. Recordings took place in studios, on location through digital platforms, a tool embraced amid COVID restrictions. Burns recounts collaborating with actor Josh Brolin, who found a few free hours in Atlanta to record his lines as George Washington prior to departing to other professional obligations.

Brolin is joined by numerous acclaimed actors, respected performing veterans, emerging and established stars, household names and rising talent, Samuel L Jackson, Michael Keaton, Tracy Letts, international acting community, skilled dramatic performers, Wendell Pierce, Matthew Rhys, Liev Schreiber, and many others.

Burns adds: “Honestly, this could represent the finest ensemble gathered for any production. Their work is exceptional. They’re not picked because they’re celebrities. I got so angry when somebody said, about the prominent cast. I explained, ‘These are artists.’ They’re the finest actors in the world and they can bring this stuff alive.”

Historical Complexity

Still, the absence of living witnesses, visual documentation required the filmmakers to rely extensively on the written word, weaving together individual perspectives of numerous historical characters. This allowed them to introduce audiences not just the famous founders of that era plus numerous additional crucial to understanding, several participants never even had a portrait painted.

Burns additionally pursued his personal passion for maps and spatial representation. “I love maps,” he notes, “with greater cartographic content throughout this series versus earlier productions I’ve done combined.”

International Impact

The team filmed across multiple important places throughout the continent and in London to preserve geographical atmosphere and worked extensively with re-enactors. All these elements combine to tell a story more bloody, multifaceted and world-changing than the one taught in schools.

The revolution, it contends, represented more than local dispute concerning territory, taxes and political voice. Conversely, the project presents a brutal conflict that ultimately drew in numerous countries and improbably came to embody what it calls “humanity’s highest ideals”.

Brother Against Brother

Initial complaints and protests aimed at the crown by American colonists across thirteen rebellious territories quickly evolved into a brutal civil conflict, setting brother against brother and turning communities into battlegrounds. In episode two, scholar Alan Taylor notes: “The greatest misconception concerning independence struggle involves believing it represented a consolidating event for colonists. This ignores the truth that Americans fought each other.”

Nuanced Understanding

For him, the independence account that “typically is drowning in sentimentality and idealization and lacks depth and doesn’t have the respect the historical reality, every individual involved and the incredible violence of it.

The historian argues, an uprising that declared the revolutionary principle of inherent human rights; a bloody domestic struggle, dividing revolutionaries and royalists; plus an international conflict, another installment in a sequence of conflicts between Britain, France and Spain for control of the continent.

Contingent Historical Events

Burns also wanted {to rediscover the