Ken Burns previews ‘The American Revolution’ at a sneak peek in Camden

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After screening excerpts of Ken Burns’ documentary “The American Revolution” at the Freedom Mortgage Pavilion in Camden, N.J., on Thursday night, WHYY’s “Fresh Air” host Terry Gross admitted she knew relatively little about the war.

“I have to tell you, Ken, that this series was a revelation for me,” Gross said. “I never studied the Revolutionary War in depth. I knew bits and pieces.”

“The American Revolution” is a deep dive into the United States’ origin story, a 12-hour PBS film broadcasting as six episodes beginning November 16.

Burns spent the day in Philadelphia and Camden to preview the film that begins with the indigenous Iroquois Nation’s governing model of democratically unified states, chronicles the evolving ideologies of independence and the tremendous amount of blood spilled to achieve it, and ends with the rippling impact of the revolution around the world.

“This was not just a revolution of ideas in Philadelphia, but a real revolution, a bloody one, a late 18th century war in which people die by muskets and bayonets and cannon taking off things,” Burns said. “It’s a civil war where Americans are killing other Americans.”

Gross interviewed Burns on stage before an audience of more than 3,200, which will be broadcast as a future episode of “Fresh Air.”

She was struck by how Burns’ film explained the many complexities of the Revolution. The colonies were far from united. Friction and disagreements cut across almost all lines, including religion, race, geography, class and politics.

“We always talk, especially now, about how divided our nation is. In my mind, that goes back to the Civil War,” Gross said. “But now I think that goes back to the founding. That goes back to The Revolution. We’ve always been divided.”

“The story of our revolution is encrusted with the barnacles of sentimentality,” Burns said. “They deserve to be scraped off and have the real story told, because the big ideas that happened across the river in Philadelphia remain even more important, become even more inspirational, when you know the extraordinarily violent, diverse story of the Revolution.”

Before the evening event in Camden, Burns and filmmaking partners Sarah Botstein and David Schmidt spent the day in Philadelphia, visiting the Museum of the American Revolution to get a sneak peek of its upcoming exhibition “The Declaration’s Journey,” opening next week, about the global impact of the Declaration of Independence.

Museum CEO Scott Stephenson said Burns and his team began visiting the museum early in their decade-long production process.

“It’s been great getting to know them over the years, lots of conversations,” Stephenson said. “When the film premieres, hopefully we’ll see echoes of some positive influence that we’ve had.”

“Scott sells himself short,” Burns said. “In every way the spirit of this museum is suffused in us. We hope that when this museum gets a chance to see the whole thing, they feel not so much that they contributed but that the film accurately reflected their values.”

The film describes the resilient power of democratic ideals wrought in the halls of Philadelphia and the people who risked their lives, fortunes and “sacred honor” to make it a reality.

It also shows the flaws of America’s heroes, the contradictions of its philosophies and the ambiguity of its citizens.

“When I was preparing this interview I found myself focused on Washington’s flaws, like his hypocrisy about slavery, and what happened to the Native Americans and the enslaved and free Black people who fought in the war, and the women,” Gross told Burns. “I don’t mean to focus on the negatives, but these are the lesser-told parts of the story.”

The interview pivoted from the historic to the contemporary when Gross asked Burns about the current White House administration’s policy to remove all “unpatriotic” messaging in national museums and parks.

“If you were showing this in a Smithsonian museum or if you were showing it in a national park, would you be canceled?” Gross asked. “Because it’s so DEI.”

Burns doubled down on his skills as a storyteller, saying Americans can accept the sometimes unflattering complexities of their national narrative.

“Maybe people will find the fact that we have included the complicated layers of this story somehow wrong. But I’m not fearful of that,” he said. “I think people understand a good story.”