WHYY Media Lab students hear advice from filmmakers Sarah Burns and David McMahon ahead of documentary premiere

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Ahead of a screening of their new film on Leonardo da Vinci, award-winning documentarians Sarah Burns and David McMahon spoke to Media Lab students at WHYY’s headquarters in Center City.

The documentary, appropriately named “Leonardo da Vinci,” is a joint production with Sarah Burns’ father, famed documentary filmmaker and recent Liberty Medal winner Ken Burns. It tells the story of the famed Italian artist from his days as a military architect, cartographer, sculptor and muralist to his creation of notable works like the “Mona Lisa” and “The Last Supper.”

Inspiration came from a conversation Ken Burns had with historian and journalist Walter Isaacson, who wrote a book on da Vinci. McMahon said the subject was something that’s “not really in our lane,” but it appealed to them because the film wasn’t going to be able to take advantage of using archival footage.

“How could we portray this guy who lived 500 years ago without any real images of him? Where would we put our focus? I think where we settled was that what we try to do is make a film where we were going to put our audience in between his ears,” McMahon said. “And we were going to try to figure out what he was thinking as he was tackling the vast array of subjects that he took on.”

Tuesday’s trip to Philadelphia was a quick turnaround for Sarah Burns, who watched her father receive the Liberty Medal for “illuminating the nation’s greatest triumphs and tragedies.” She said her father’s work is always inspiring, and getting a front-row seat to the creation of multiple Emmy Award–winning productions encouraged her to join the “family business.”

“I grew up with this literally in my house,” Burns said. “So I have been sitting in on screenings and watching editors work since I was a little kid, and it’s always been really exciting to see the process and how a story comes together in the edit room.”

The younger Burns and McMahon got to pass that inspiration to kids during a visit with kids involved with WHYY’s Media Labs Program, where students get hands-on training in video and audio production. McMahon reflected on what inspired him to get involved with making films, including a gift he received when he was a kid: a Fisher-Price video camera.

“I loved pointing the camera at things and seeing what we came away with,” McMahon said. “That was electrifying for me. We had Ken Burns movies on in the house when I was a kid and so I was aware of his work… I remember going to the theater and watching “Hoop Dreams” and going, ‘Oh, wow, you can do that with movies?’”

While Sarah was born into the “family business,” McMahon, her husband and filmmaking partner worked with her and Ken on several projects, including a Peabody Award–winning film on the Central Park Five, inspired by a book Sarah wrote. She said that experience was very eye-opening as it became the first film she was credited for.

“Watching my dad in the editing room is very cool,” Burns said. “I’m not sure whether it’s innate or just learned over many decades, but his sense of pacing and knowing how to fix some little problem by adjusting two frames. I feel like that’s something that we’re all kind of learning and absorbing from him in terms of the way that you pace the story, and it’s really cool to watch him do that.”

Their latest work will air on PBS stations across the country, including WHYY, on Nov. 18 and 19 at 8 p.m. The two-part, four-hour documentary on Leonardo da Vinci will also be available to stream on PBS.org and the PBS App.