Ken Burns prepares documentary about Leonardo da Vinci

By Alimat Aliyeva

Award-winning documentary filmmaker, known for the films The Vietnam War, The Civil War, The Dust Bowl and many others, Ken Burns is distracted from American-themed materials for the first time: his new two-part series, which will air on PBS in November this year, is dedicated to Leonardo da Vinci, Azernews reports, citing foreign media outlets.

The new film, directed by Burns together with his daughter Sarah Burns and son-in-law David McMahon, tells about the relentless desire of the Italian polymath to understand the world and the enduring influence of his legacy.

"When we decided to explore Leonardo's life, we realized that although he was in many ways a man of his time, he was also interested in something more universal," says Sarah Burns in a statement to PBS.

"Leonardo was uniquely focused on finding connections throughout nature, which seems very modern to us today, but of course, it has a long history. While we are following Leonardo's personal journey and exploring his artistic and scientific achievements, we are also really focused on what was going on in his head and understanding the depth of his curiosity," McMahon said in a statement.

"Leonardo's thinking was so unique and timeless in many ways that our traditional approach alone would not have been enough."

The production will feature interviews with experts from around the world, as well as with other artists and thinkers from different fields influenced by Leonardo's work. One such figure is director Guillermo del Toro, who says at the beginning of the film:

"Leonardo's modernity lies in the fact that he understands that knowledge and imagination are closely linked. No single individual can influence our collective efforts to understand the world and ourselves. But Leonardo possessed a unique genius for research, aided by his extraordinary abilities as an artist and scientist, which help us better understand the natural world of which we are a part and more fully appreciate what it means to be alive and human," Burns said in a statement.