Ken Burns discusses his series on Benjamin Franklin plus dissects filmmaking

Ken Burns has been a documentary filmmaker for 45 years and his latest series is a four-hour PBS special about Benjamin Franklin airing on PBS Stations April 4 and 5.

He discusses, with guest host Emily Votaw, the complexities and brilliance of Franklin and the many different venues in which he excelled. Some call Franklin a genius of his age.

Burns describes how he traverses the complexities and nuances of history for his films and how he ferrets out stories and facts previously untold.

Burns also explains how he has given voices, in his films, to marginalized groups of people and tells historic stories often through the eyes and emotions of “ordinary people” and not just major historical figures.