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‘Leonardo da Vinci,’ a new film from Ken Burns, premieres Nov. 18-19
November 4, 2024 Leave a Comment
Explore the life and work of 15th century polymath Leonardo da Vinci with the all-new, two-part documentary Leonardo da Vinci, premiering 7 p.m. Nov. 18-19 on PBS Wisconsin and streaming on the free PBS app.
Directed by Ken Burns, Sarah Burns and David McMahon, the film looks at how the artist influenced and inspired future generations, and it finds in his soaring imagination and profound intellect the foundation for a conversation we are still having today: what is our relationship with nature and what does it mean to be human.
Set against the rich and dynamic backdrop of Renaissance Italy, at a time of skepticism and freethinking, regional war and religious upheaval, Leonardo da Vinci brings the artist’s towering achievements to life through his prolific personal notebooks, primary and secondary accounts of his life and on-camera interviews with modern scholars, artists, engineers, inventors and admirers.
“No single person can speak to our collective effort to understand the world and ourselves,” said Ken Burns. “But Leonardo had a unique genius for inquiry, aided by his extraordinary skills as an artist and scientist, that helps us better understand the natural world that we are part of and to appreciate more fully what it means to be alive and human.”
“As we set out to explore Leonardo’s life, we realized that while he was very much a man of his time, he was also interested in something more universal,” said Sarah Burns. “Leonardo was uniquely focused on finding connections throughout nature, something that strikes us as very modern today, but which of course has a long history.”
“Though we follow Leonardo’s personal journey and explore his artistic and scientific accomplishments, we’re also really focused on what went on in his mind and on understanding the depths of his curiosity,” said McMahon. “To do this we use material from his notebooks mixed with archival film, photos and sound, along with our cinematography and visual effects, and we’re not afraid to stray from the timeline. Leonardo’s thinking was so unique, and in many ways timeless, that our traditional approach alone would have been insufficient.”
