Ken Burns on his new film, "Leonardo da Vinci"

From PBS -

"When Ken Burns visited Rocky Mountain PBS in 2023 to promote “The American Buffalo,” he explained that all of his films — he has directed more than 30 — try to answer one question: “Who are we?” And by “we,” he means Americans.

But this time, Burns’ visit to the Buell Public Media Center in Denver was part of a press run for a film unlike anything in his oeuvre — its subject is not American.

“Leonardo da Vinci,” directed by Ken Burns, Sarah Burns and David McMahon is a two-part, four-hour film premiering on Rocky Mountain PBS Nov. 18.

This film will tell the story of Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci, best known as Leonardo da Vinci, a fifteenth century Italian polymath of soaring imagination and profound intellect, who left behind artistic works of staggering beauty and detailed sketches of futuristic contraptions of warfare and flight that today are marveled at for their technical ingenuity and foresight.

From his birth out of wedlock to a notary and peasant woman and apprenticeship to a distinguished Florentian painter, to his days as a military architect, cartographer, sculptor and muralist for hire, the film will offer an intimate portrait of a singular visionary whose Mona Lisa, The Last Supper and The Vitruvian Man are among the most celebrated works known to man, but whose artistic endeavors sometimes seemed an afterthought to his pursuits in science and engineering.

Set against a rich and dynamic backdrop of Renaissance Italy, at a time of skepticism and free-thinking, regional war and religious upheaval, Leonardo da Vinci will bring Leonardo and his towering achievements to life through his voluminous personal notebooks, primary and secondary accounts of his life and times, and on-camera interviews with modern scholars, artists, engineers, inventors and admirers.

Directed and produced by Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, and David McMahon, written by David McMahon and Sarah Burns, and executive produced by Ken Burns, Leonardo da Vinci is slated for broadcast November 18-19, 2024 on PBS (4 hours)." 

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