The American Revolution
with Ken Burns in personKen Burns presents selections from his newest documentary series, which examines how America's founding turned the world upside-down. Discussion follows.
Thirteen British colonies on the Atlantic Coast rose in rebellion, won their independence, and established a new form of government that radically reshaped the continent and inspired centuries of democratic movements around the globe.
An expansive look at the virtues and contradictions of the war and the birth of the United States of America, the film follows dozens of figures from a wide variety of backgrounds. Through their individual stories, viewers experience the war through the memories of the men and women who experienced it: the rank-and-file Continental soldiers and American militiamen (some of them teenagers), Patriot political and military leaders, British Army officers, American Loyalists, Native soldiers and civilians, enslaved and free African Americans, German soldiers in the British service, French and Spanish allies, and various civilians living in North America, Loyalist as well as Patriot, including many made refugees by the war.
These stories come to life through reenactments filmed across New England in every season, as well as paintings, letters, lithographs, and other archival materials, from museums, galleries, and libraries. Narrated by Peter Coyote, The American Revolution includes the first-person voices of nearly 200 individual historic figures, read by a star-studded cast including Meryl Streep, Morgan Freeman, Tom Hanks, Amanda Gorman, Kenneth Branagh and dozens more. The film also uses a wide variety of music, both from the period and newly composed pieces for the series, with recordings by Johnny Gandelsman, Rhiannon Giddens, Yo-Yo Ma and many more.
The Revolution began a movement for people around the world to imagine new and better futures for themselves, their nations, and for humanity. It declared American independence with promises that we continue to strive for. The American Revolution opened the door to advance civil liberties and human rights, and it asked questions that we are still trying to answer today.
This event includes a selection of clips from The American Revolution, followed by a conversation with Ken Burns, David Schmidt '09, historian Christopher Brown and Professor Colin Calloway.
Ken Burns has been making documentary films for almost fifty years. Since the Academy Award nominated Brooklyn Bridge in 1981, Ken has gone on to direct and produce some of the most acclaimed historical documentaries ever made, including The Civil War; Baseball; Jazz; The War; The National Parks: America's Best Idea; Prohibition; The Roosevelts: An Intimate History; The Vietnam War; Country Music; The U.S. and the Holocaust; The American Buffalo; Leonardo da Vinci; and, most recently, The American Revolution. Future film projects include Emancipation to Exodus and LBJ & the Great Society, among others.
Ken's films have been honored with dozens of major awards, including seventeen Emmy Awards, two Grammy Awards and two Oscar nominations. In September of 2008, at the News & Documentary Emmy Awards, Ken was honored by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences with a Lifetime Achievement Award. In November of 2022, Ken was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame.
David Schmidt '09 is the producer and co-director, along with Ken Burns and Sarah Botstein, of The American Revolution, a six-part, 12-hour series premiering on PBS in the fall of 2025. Schmidt began working with Florentine Films as a researcher and apprentice editor for The Roosevelts (2014), while also supervising the documentary's seven-episode script. His research on The Vietnam War (2017) won him the Jane Mercer Footage Researcher of the Year award, and he also worked closely on that project with writer Geoffrey C. Ward and helped coordinate postproduction. With Burns, Schmidt also produced the two-part biography Benjamin Franklin (2022) for PBS.
A graduate of Dartmouth College with a degree in history, Schmidt grew up on the Virginia Peninsula within the Historic Triangle of Jamestown, Williamsburg, and Yorktown—each site only minutes from his childhood home. He spent his summers working in the living history museum in Colonial Williamsburg and on the archaeological dig at Historic Jamestown. Those childhood experiences led him to pursue a career telling American history.
Contact Us
Box Office
Hours: Tuesday-Friday: 12-5 pm
Saturday: 2-5 pm
Open one hour prior to all ticketed events at the venue of the performance.
Visiting Information
Black Family Visual Arts Center
22 Lebanon Street
Hanover, NH
