Renowned filmmaker Ken Burns has produced a new documentary series, The American Revolution, that frames the American war for independence as a civil war that inspired similar movements across the globe. The six-part series premieres on PBS on Nov. 16 and on Ocean State Media on Nov. 17.
During a visit to Providence, Burns sat down with Ocean State Media’s Ian Donnis to discuss the importance of history, the legacy of the American Revolution, and Rhode Island’s contribution to the country’s founding.
Interview highlights
On why he created a documentary on the American Revolution
Ken Burns: I’m a person that has up to now really avoided reenactments. I don’t like that. I sort of feel like if you’re going to reenact, you might as well make a feature film, and that’s not my job. I like documentaries. But here we thought, “Well, maybe we could do it in a different way.” We could spend years, as we did, filming reenactors all up and down the East Coast in all different kinds of uniforms, in all weather, in an impressionistic way, not to have them recreate the Battle of Bunker Hill, but to get enough critical mass of stuff that you can evoke what it must have been like to be in that army. In a way then, that’s better than any evidence that you have. Then combine it with maps and paintings and drawings to make it come alive.
On Rhode Island’s legacy in the American Revolution
Burns: I think you could sort of begin and end with (General) Nathanael Greene. He’s certainly the person that Washington trusted the most… Greene is there all along. Washington gives him really important tasks like putting the army together and being the quartermaster after the horrible winter at Valley Forge, and then gives him the Southern Department (of the Continental Army). So he’s really important.
There’s a wonderful, beautiful moment when Stephen Hopkins, who signs the Declaration (of Independence); a man from Rhode Island said to have had palsy. When he signed it, he said that “My hand may shake, but my heart does not.” And it’s a beautiful thing. And then Rhode Island, along with Connecticut, offered enslaved blacks their freedom after the war for fighting. The 1st Rhode Island (Regiment) is notable for that. And Rhode Island is trying to figure out how to compensate the owners, a very delicate thing at this time.
On the importance of studying the American Revolution
Burns: We always think that our moment is the biggest crisis. “You know, we’re so divided now,” is what people say. Well, I invite you to watch The American Revolution and you’ll see Americans really divided. Or revisit our series of 35 years ago on the history of the Civil War. We were really divided. The Vietnam period, the same thing.
I think what you can do, and this is the great gift of history — it provides you with the ability, much like a financial advisor who is averaging out the returns on various accounts that you have, to just calm things down a little bit. I also think that it provides everyone who calls themselves an American a place to enter and participate in that story.
I’ve had the great privilege of making films about the U.S., but I’ve also made films about “us.” I think here, we have an opportunity for everybody, no matter how they’re divided, to have a story that then helps to put, as I’ve said, the “us” back in the U.S.
