Ken Burns details film financing to preserve creative control
Updated
Updated · Barron's · May 7
Ken Burns details film financing to preserve creative control
5 articles · Updated · Barron's · May 7
In a Barron’s interview, Burns said Bank of America has been his sole corporate underwriter for 20 years, after 22 years with General Motors.
He said backers including Bank of America’s Brian Moynihan and Blackstone’s Steve Schwarzman support projects such as The American Revolution without influencing editing decisions.
Burns said avoiding investors and streamers lets him take years on films, citing his 10-and-a-half-year, more than $30m Vietnam War documentary as a model.
With CEOs of Bank of America and Blackstone as benefactors, can a film about the economics of revolution remain truly independent?
Financiers profited from the American Revolution. Does Burns's film reveal if they were patriots or simply war profiteers?
A review says his film missed its economic focus. Did Ken Burns's unique funding model fail its ultimate creative test?