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)." 

#leonardo #leonardodavinci #kenburns #pbs #renaissance #art #history #painting 

Ken Burns is a National Treasure Along with our National Parks

"In America, magnificence is a common treasure.... We own together the most magnificent places on the continent."
Carl Pope - The Sierra Club


In 1872 the United States Government created the first National Park on the globe: Yellowstone National Park. Ken Burns has created a new series of documentary films, The National Parks - America's Best Idea , that celebrates this landmark achievement.


Thomas Moran
Yellowstone
watercolor on paper
from Ken Burns' The National Parks - America's Best Idea

The first installment in the series, The Scripture of Nature, tells the history of Yellowstone and the inspiration for a National Parks system that sprung out of the collection of "artists, writers, entrepreneurs, and tourists" that found beauty and worth in the stunning natural world of Yosemite in California and Yellowstone in Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho.


Albert Bierstadt
Yosemite Valley
oil on canvas
from Ken Burns' The National Parks - America's Best Idea
On June 30, 1864 President Abraham Lincoln signed a law to preserve Yosemite.

John Muir was inspired by the majesty of the American landscape and became the voice for the preservation of our spectacular wilderness. Ken Burns' series on the National Parks is ever so timely as cynicism seems to be our new national voice. I highly recommend this series of documentaries and am convinced that those who pay attention to Burns' films will come away changed and inspired.


American Indian at Yosemite
from Ken Burns' The National Parks - America's Best Idea
Ken Burns points out that in the American Indian language of the region, Yosemite means "people who should be feared, they are killers."

Ken Burns is an American treasure. My son and I were fortunate to meet him and thank him for the amazing work he has done to bring history to the forefront of public consciousness. We are lucky to have him and his art.

Watch online at:
The National Parks on PBS
On iTunes at:
Ken Burns' "The National Parks" on iTunes