Ken Burns, the famed filmmaker, talks to BBC special correspondent Katty Kay about his unique approach to portraying US history, from war and strife to baseball and jazz, ahead of his upcoming PBS documentary The American Revolution.

Titles like Brooklyn Bridge, Prohibition, and The Dust Bowl may bring up images of classroom lessons and by-the-book recitations of facts, yet portraying historical events in an approachable – and captivating – manner has become US documentary filmmaker Ken Burns’ trademark.  Since the 1980s, he has communicated history and culture to audiences in ways that textbooks cannot.

Burns’ collection of work has won him two Academy Award nominations, two Grammy Awards, and fifteen Emmy Awards.

“Your head might be filled with 40 or 50 topics, as my head is always filled up, but when one [topic] drops down to your heart, you realise it’s firing on all cylinders,” said Burns to Kay.

These topics have ranged from jazz to baseball, and from the specific, such as a biography of Leonardo da Vinci, to the broad, such as The National Parks: America’s Best Idea, released in 2009.

“I don’t want to tell you stories about what I know,” replies the man. “I’d rather show you a process of discovery.  So I go into subjects I don’t know much about.”  His next focus will be on the 18th century, with The American Revolution, a six-part, 12-hour series that will premiere on PBS on November 16. This month marks the 250th anniversary of the start of the American War of Independence, which began in the thirteen colonies of British America in 1775 and lasted many years before concluding in the establishment of the United States of America.

“The American Revolution is one of the most important events in human history,” Burns said PBS prior to special screenings for kids and teachers around the country. “We went from being subjects to inventing a new concept, citizens, and set in motion democratic revolutions around the globe.”

Burns disagrees with the widely held belief that history is condemned to repeat itself, instead citing the 19th-century Spanish-American philosopher George Santayana.  “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” Santanya said, referring to the Holocaust.  “It’s [a] lovely phrase you’d wish would be true,” according to Burns. He also cites the famous phrase attributed to US novelist Mark Twain: “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does often rhyme.”

Burns does not gloss over painful aspects of US history, emphasizing that being patriotic does not imply forgetting the past, such as the fact that Thomas Jefferson owned slaves.  “He knew it was wrong, and he kept doing it,” Burns adds.

“Growing up, I had an idealised view of my nation. I adore my country. I don’t know anyone who loves their nation as much as I do. I produce films about the United States, but they’re about us.”

 Burns tells Kay that he believes it takes time to understand the value of a narrative. “I’ve been interviewing Obama about his administration, and the longer I wait to do that film, the better it will be, because of the perspective that the passage of time will give,” Burns tells me.

When asked about the scope of his work, which extends from individual biographies to global events, Burns says he can be laser-focused on the topic at hand.  As Burns completes The American Revolution and the upcoming Obama project, he claims to have more than enough material to go till “the 2030s” – and he is particularly interested in a history of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).