Coming Wednesday: Filmmaker Burns talks about PBS National Parks series

Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns is easily one of the most dynamic characters I’ve encountered in recent years. His latest project “The National Parks: America’s Greatest Idea,” which runs to six parts and 12 hours this week, captures the human, natural, and political history of the National Parks system.

During our conversation earlier this year, Burns revealed something personal about his relationship to a National Park. Going to the Shenandoah National Park with his father, a memory long buried but recalled during his research, became something of an epiphany for Burns.

“I can remember conversations, the route we took from Baltimore, where we had stopped to stay at his childhood home on the way to the entrance, and the conversations we had about Civil War battlefields and butterflies and different things like that,” Burns said. “It was an amazing experience for me.”

Read more of my interview with Ken Burns in Wednesday’s Review-Journal.