BACKPACKER Interview: Ken Burns

Famed documentary filmmaker Ken Burns talks about the people, places, and lasting importance of his latest project, “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea.”

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Ken Burns can’t be anything but Ken Burns. He speaks just like his films unfold, in eloquent, thoughtful, slow-burn sentences that take their time to unfurl but always captivate you with their breadth of history and meaning.

On the verge of releasing his latest film, “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea,” the Emmy-winning filmmaker sat down with BACKPACKER to chat about it. Check it out:

“We are still basking in the warmth of the half-life of (John Muir’s) ideas…they have changed and rearranged the molecules of Americans.”

Wow. I wish I said that.

—Ted Alvarez