KEENE, N.H. (MyKeeneNow) Filmmaker Ken Burns was the featured guest Monday morning, Sept. 8, on Good Morning with Dan Mitchell on WKBK radio, where he offered listeners a first look at what he called the most important project of his career: a sweeping, 12-hour PBS documentary on the American Revolution.

Burns, a longtime Walpole resident and co-founder of Florentine Films, said the project has been in the works since 2015 and is set to premiere Nov. 16. He described the Revolution as “the most important event in the history of the world since the birth of Christ” because it introduced the radical idea that people could be citizens rather than subjects.

“This was not a bloodless myth, it was a brutal civil war,” Burns told Mitchell, stressing that the conflict divided neighbors, friends, and families as profoundly as the Civil War would later do. The film, he explained, aims to move beyond sanitized versions of history by incorporating perspectives of loyalists, women, Native Americans, and African Americans.

A major focus of the documentary, Burns said, is the role of George Washington, whom he called “the single most indispensable figure in the creation of the United States.” Without Washington’s leadership, he argued, “we do not have a country, full stop.”

Burns also spoke about the challenges of condensing a decade of research and production into a dozen hours of storytelling. He likened his process to making maple syrup: “It takes 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup. And that’s sort of what I do.”

Though the film avoids direct references to modern politics, Burns noted that history often “rhymes” with the present. By presenting a fuller and more complicated portrait of the Revolution, he hopes to give Americans perspective on today’s divisions and restore pride in the nation’s origins.

“The American War is over, but the American Revolution is still going on,” Burns said.

The film premieres on PBS on Sunday, Nov. 16, at 8 p.m.

Listen to the full interview: