Ken Burns' Thoreau Documentary: How Do You Fund a PBS Film?

Even with Ken Burns and Don Henley attached, funding a PBS documentary is brutal. So what hope do the rest of us have?

Erik and Christopher Ewers get real about PBS funding, AI’s impact on filmmaking, and how they landed George Clooney, Jeff Goldblum, Ted Danson, Tate Donovan and Meryl Streep for their new PBS documentary Henry David Thoreau.

In Part 2 of this conversation, the Ewers Brothers open up about the financial realities of documentary funding, even with Ken Burns and Don Henley attached, why Chris sees AI as the next revolution instead of the apocalypse, how broadcast is giving way to streaming, and the stories behind casting some of Hollywood’s biggest voices. This is Part 2 of a two-part conversation.

In Part 2, you’ll learn:

• Why having Ken Burns and Don Henley as executive producers doesn’t make funding easy and who actually made the Thoreau film possible

• Chris’s case for why AI is the digital camera revolution all over again, not the death of filmmaking

• The best professional advice Chris ever received and why it will never change

• How Chris kept his mouth shut on a commercial set with Jeff Goldblum and how that silence led to Goldblum voicing Thoreau

• The story of how Don Henley quietly recruited George Clooney as narrator and Clooney’s reaction when asked how long he’d known Henley

• Ken Burns’s advice on directing Meryl Streep: “You don’t.”

• How streaming is changing episode length and why “the director’s cut” isn't what it used to be.

• Erik’s approach to pre-planning edit cuts for PBS broadcast time slots without sacrificing the story

• Why Ken Burns treats his mentorship like tough love, and why Erik is grateful for it

• One thing filmmakers need to know about getting a documentary on PBS

Timestamps:

0:00 How Don Henley Got George Clooney

2:26 Why Thoreau Matters Today

7:24 Is AI the New Digital Camera?

12:25 The Best Professional Advice

14:56 How They Fund PBS Documentaries

18:18 How Do You Get a Documentary on PBS?

24:25 Broadcast vs. Streaming Lengths

28:15 How They Landed Jeff Goldblum

31:39 The George Clooney Reveal

35:28 DocuView Deja View Picks

DocuView DejaVu Picks:

Erik Ewers: Crumb (1994), Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse (1991), Jiro Dreams of Sushi (2011), The Thin Blue Line (1988)

Christopher Loren Ewers: Man on Wire (2008)

Christian Taylor: Buy Now: The Shopping Conspiracy (Netflix, 2024)

This episode is supported by Virgil Films Entertainment.

About the Guests:

Erik Ewers• Director, Editor. Ken Burns’s senior editor for 33+ years. Multiple Emmy winner. ACE Eddie Award winner (The Roosevelts, 2015). Based in New Hampshire.

Christopher Loren Ewers • Director, DP. 20+ years behind the camera. Commercial clients include Apple, Coca-Cola, Tiffany & Co., Stella Artois, Volvo, Peter Millar. Based in the NYC metro area.

About Henry David Thoreau (PBS):

A three-part, three-hour documentary, the first full-length documentary biography of Thoreau. Executive produced by Ken Burns and Don Henley. Narrated by George Clooney. Voices by Jeff Goldblum (Thoreau), Ted Danson (Ralph Waldo Emerson), Meryl Streep (Lidian Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Mary Merrick Brooks, Maria Thoreau), and Tate Donovan (William Ellery Channing). Available now on PBS and PBS Documentaries on Amazon.

Resources Mentioned:

• Henry David Thoreau (PBS, 2026)

• Buy Now: The Shopping Conspiracy (Netflix, 2024)

• The Movies That Made Us (Netflix)

• Walden; or, Life in the Woods by Henry David Thoreau (1854)

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Connect:

Ewers Brothers Productions: ewersbrothers.com

Connect with Christian Taylor on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/meetchristiantaylor

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ABOUT DOCUMENTARY FIRST

Documentary First is a weekly podcast about the people behind documentaries and how the work changed them. Host Christian Taylor, director of the award-winning The Girl Who Wore Freedom, talks with filmmakers, distributors, entertainment lawyers, actors and more, from Ken Burns and PBS American Masters creator Susan Lacy to first-timers, across nearly 300 conversations. Each week brings one of two formats: a long-form conversation with the people behind films for HBO, Netflix, PBS and independent film, or The Deep Dive, where Christian takes one insight from a recent conversation and follows it wherever it leads. Listen Notes ranks the show in the top 5% of all podcasts worldwide. New episodes every week.