Acclaimed documentary filmmaker Ken Burns spent a good portion of his life in Ann Arbor, Michigan. On Nov. 18, his newest documentary will be coming out, “Leonardo da Vinci,” on PBS.
Growing up in Ann Arbor
Ken Burns and his family came to Ann Arbor in early July 1963. Burns attended Burns Park for 5th and 6th grade, Tappan for 7th, 8th, and 9th, and Pioneer for 10th, 11th, and 12th.
Burns said the Ann Arbor School System “hugely” impacted him when he first moved to Ann Arbor. His mother was ill, and they chose Ann Arbor in part because of its medical facilities. Burns’ father was an anthropology professor at the University of Michigan.
“It was just a fantastic thing,” Burns said. “I mean, you have to understand that we arrived (in Ann Arbor) in trauma, and it only got worse. My mom was very, very sick and had been for many, many years when we arrived (in Ann Arbor.) In fact, my father had an offer at another University, but it didn’t have a hospital associated with it. My Mom died about almost a little bit before two years into our time in Ann Arbor. So, a lot of the early stuff is sort of fraught, but I knew I was getting a spectacularly good education…”
He added that when his mother died, the Ann Arbor community was extremely supportive, especially the friends he made.
Although Ken Burns was offered a partial scholarship to attend the University of Michigan, he decided to attend a new experimental school in New Hampshire on the advice of his family doctor.
“I do remember our family physician saying, ‘you need to get out and go away.’ He really felt it would be good for me to go away for school rather than do as I presumed I was going to do, go to the University of Michigan, which I would have been happy to go.”
Working at Discount Records
Ken Burns also worked at Discount Records in Ann Arbor. At the time, Ann Arbor was the only college town with two Discount Records: one on the corner of Forest and South University and the other at State and Liberty.
“Several of our friends worked there. And we all worked really hard and it was a wonderful musical education.”
Burns said he clearly recalls the time he spent working there.
“I remember getting and selling the first issue of Rolling Stone with John Lennon on the cover. And selling tickets to Woodstock. And trying to convince my dad to let me go, and he wouldn’t let me go,” Burns said.
His father also gave him a camera in Ann Arbor, and he started filming.
“I don’t really call it filmmaking,” Burns said. “He gave me a camera. We’d vary between, I would take shots, I guess you would call them documentary shots. And at the same time, we would concoct all these weird fictional things and work on those. And nothing ever got done, and it was a lot of fun. But I knew I wanted to be a filmmaker. And that is what I pursued when I got to college.”
Even though Burns no longer lives in Ann Arbor, he said he still has strong connections and memories.
“I work out in a shirt that says Hampshire College and has a big picture of a football. And it says ‘Hampshire football undefeated since 1970’” Burns said. “We don’t have a football team. So we are undefeated in football. And so I’ve kept my entire allegiance to Michigan in all things. It keeps me connected to the place.”
The making of the “Leonardo da Vinci” film
Burns said he was encouraged to work on this film by his friend, the biographer Walter Isaacson. He was hesitant at first because he usually only does films on American subjects, but Isaacson, Burns’ daughter Sarah Burns and his son in law David McMann were able to convince him.
Now, as Burns reflects on this film, it has become one of the most important subjects of his career.
“It has been one of the most satisfying, professional experiences of my life to get to know Leonardo,” Burns said. “Arguably the man, the person, of the last millennium. He is so great an artist, but also so great a scientist. He would not have seen a distinction. He would not put a label on them. He was interested in the flight of birds and anatomy and botany as much as he was interested in getting the face of the Mona Lisa correct.”
The Leonardo da Vinci Film is a collaboration with McMahon, Ken Burns and Sarah Burns — all who worked as directors, writers and producers of the film.
“Sarah (Burns) and I were in right away,” McMahon said. “We were blown away by Leonardo’s notebooks, which are an extraordinary window into his mind and his thinking on the many subjects he tackled in his lifetime. We felt like they could help us put our audience in between Leonardo’s ears.”
Science as art, and art as science
Ken Burns, Sarah Burns and McMahon agreed that it was important to delve into da Vinci not only as an artist, as he is widely known, but also for his trail-blazing work as a scientist, mathematician, engineer, naturalist and experimenter in all disciplines.
“It quickly became clear to us that Leonardo didn’t see a distinction between these disciplines,” said McMahon. “He was driven by a boundless curiosity, and he used science and painting in seeking answers to whatever questions he was posing. He intended to publish his notebooks, which are dedicated to geology, water, human anatomy and bird flight among other topics, though that didn’t happen in his lifetime. Painting was his bread and butter, but he wanted to be thought of as an intellectual.”
One of the other aspects of the film is the relevance of da Vinci to our lives today. Many are still challenged today to create the mechanisms he designed. da Vinci’s anatomical drawings are considered still the best to date. And many are still inspired by his work in all fields. The documentary itself replicated much of that inspiration as an art form, employing split screens to juxtapose da Vinci’s artistic and scientific explorations — and make them relevant today.
“Leonardo was eager to understand the rules of nature through observation and apply them to not only his paintings but his machine designs and other innovations,” McMahon said. “By splitting the screen and using our own cinematography alongside his drawings, sketches, and studies, as well as archival film footage, we felt we could help our audience make the same connections between art and design and the natural world that Leonardo was making. We wanted our audience to see him as a lateral thinker who didn’t make a distinction between art and science. His paintings could be experiments, and his anatomical drawings could be beautiful works of art. It also gave our film a visual grammar that seemed to serve Leonardo well.”
Da Vinci’s number one influence was nature, which he was in awe of and wanted to emulate in art and science. He also said the best way to learn was through observation and experience.
Da Vinci’s impact
This documentary includes interviews with people from all over the world, including Italy, Canada, America, France etc. They spoke on the fields da Vinci impacted in various parts of the world, such as, science, engineering, arts, film, writing, religion, medicine, religion.
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Originally composed music
This is also the first time there is an original musical score composed for a Ken Burns documentary. Like Leonardo’s work, the originally composed music by Caroline Shaw brings together the ancient, sacred, experimental and inspirational.
“We often use period music from the time of our subject, but for this film we wanted an original score, one that would help us highlight Leonardo’s curiosity, imagination, obsessiveness and wonder at the natural world, and could serve as connective tissue as we traced his personal journey,” McMahon said. “Caroline Shaw’s music seemed perfectly in tune with our sense of Leonardo. It’s modern yet timeless. We had imagined strings and percussion, and she suggested adding the vocal band ‘Roomful of Teeth’ as a third layer or solo option. As she wrote, she seemed to intuitively know what sound each scene called for. Her music always seemed to fit the moment and raise up the film. It is filled with joy.”
The Ken Burns documentary on the life and work of Leonardo da Vinci, a 15th century Renaissance polymath, premieres on November 18-19 on PBS.
Donna Marie Iadipaolo is a writer, journalist, and State of Michigan certified teacher, since 1990. She has written for national publications like The Village Voice, Ear Magazine of New Music, Insurance & Technology, and TheStreet.
She is now writing locally for many publications, including Current Magazine, Ann Arbor Family, and the Ann Arbor Independent. Her undergraduate degree is from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where she graduated with an honors bachelor’s degree and three teacher certificate majors: mathematics, social sciences, English. She also earned three graduate degrees in Master of Science, Master of Arts, and Education Specialist Degree.
