Buffalo Toronto Public Media and partners The Burchfield Penney Art Center, Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Buffalo & Erie County Public Libraries, Buffalo Museum of Science, and The Foundry invite you to a screening and panel discussion of Leonardo da Vinci, a new, two-part, four-hour documentary directed by Ken Burns, Sarah Burns and David McMahon.

Join us on September 30 from 6-7:30pm at our WNED PBS studios where we will screen clips of the film, followed by a panel discussion. Join special guest and Leonardo da Vinci filmmaker, David McMahon, and our panel of experts representing STEAM disciplines where we will discuss da Vinci’s influence as an artist, inventor, and scientist.

The film, which explores the life and work of the 15th century polymath Leonardo da Vinci, is Burns’s first non-American subject. It also marks a significant change in the team’s filmmaking style, which includes using split screens with images, video and sound from different periods to further contextualize Leonardo’s art and scientific explorations. LEONARDO da VINCI looks at how the artist influenced and inspired future generations, and it finds in his soaring imagination and profound intellect the foundation for a conversation we are still having today: what is our relationship with nature and what does it mean to be human.

Set against the rich and dynamic backdrop of Renaissance Italy, at a time of skepticism and freethinking, regional war and religious upheaval, LEONARDO da VINCI brings the artist’s towering achievements to life through his prolific personal notebooks, primary and secondary accounts of his life, and on-camera interviews with modern scholars, artists, engineers, inventors, and admirers.

This is a free event, however, you must register to attend. Parking is free in our gated lot.

Moderator

Keiah Shaku, Director of Community Engagement, Buffalo AKG Art Gallery

Keiah Shauku serves as the Buffalo AKG Art Museum’s Director of Community Engagement. In this leadership role at the museum, she works collaboratively with community stakeholders to ensure that the AKG is a place that is welcoming to all and offers programming and exhibitions that reflect the interests and cultures of the surrounding communities. In addition to her work at the AKG, Shauku has served as a STEAM instructor, teaching computer science and electrical engineering fundamentals. She has worked with the Foundry for their after-school programs. While in Alabama, Shauku coached champion robotics teams, mentored science fair winners, and developed a bevy of community-based STEAM educational programs.

Panelists

David McMahon, Filmmaker, Florentine Films

David McMahon has been making award-winning documentary films for more than a decade. With Ken Burns and Sarah Burns, he wrote, directed and produced The Central Park Five, a two-hour film about the five teenagers who were wrongly convicted in the Central Park Jogger case of 1989, which won a Peabody Award and Best Non-Fiction Film of 2012 from The New York Film Critics Circle. In 2016, he again teamed with Ken Burns and Sarah Burns to direct and produce Jackie Robinson, a two-part, four-hour biography of the baseball and civil rights icon, for which he and Sarah Burns were nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Non-Fiction program and won a WGA Award for documentary script. In 2020, he and Sarah Burns directed and produced East Lake Meadows: A Public Housing Story, a two-hour film about a housing project in Atlanta, which premiered on PBS that spring. In 2021, Together with Ken Burns and Sarah Burns, he produced and directed a four-part series on Muhammad Ali, which was named the best television show of the year by Awards Daily writer David Phillips. He and Sarah Burns were nominated for a WGA award for the script. Raised in Clarence, New York, and a graduate of the University of Michigan, McMahon lives in Brooklyn, New York with his wife, Sarah Burns, and their two children.

Ryan St. Pierre, Assistant Professor, University at Buffalo

Ryan St. Pierre is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University at Buffalo working at the intersection of small-scale robots, microsystems, and biological systems. Prior to joining the University at Buffalo, he was a postdoctoral research associate at Carnegie Mellon University. He received his PhD in 2018 from the University of Maryland, and MS and BS degrees in 2013 from Northeastern University. His research interests focus on bringing autonomy to small, resource-constrained robots through novel hardware integration and understanding highly dynamic biological systems. His work in microrobotics has been recognized with the Best Paper award at the 2018 Solid-State Sensors, Actuators, and Microsystems Workshop and Ryan has been highlighted on the 2020 Forbes 30 Under 30 Science list.

Simone Ragland, LMSW: CEO/Founder, Families Aimed Toward Excellence FATE and Chief Executive Director, Bits and Bytes STEM Foundation Inc.

Simone Ragland is a Licensed Social Worker, administrator, educator, equity advocate, and proud Buffalonian. She has over 20 years of experience providing support services to individuals and families by facilitating parent education classes, family support for individuals with developmental disabilities and recovery treatment, and in-home intensive therapy for children and their families through organizations in Erie County. For a decade, as Project Director for the Science and Technology Enrichment Program, Simone has cultivated a wealth of knowledge and understanding for the academic and socio-emotional needs of the students, specifically those who are historically underrepresented groups, including girls in science, technology, engineering, math, medicine (STEM). She has been immersed in the local educational community, creating and providing opportunities for students to close the opportunity, digital, and equity gaps and assist students in developing and sharpening skills needed to excel in post-secondary education and STEM careers. Simone is passionate about education, empowerment, engagement, and support for children and families and increasing diversity and inclusion in the STEM pathway, STEM education, and STEM careers.  

Yvonne K. Widenor, Assistant Professor, Teaching Faculty, Art History, Canisius University

Professor Yvonne K. Widenor found art history to be a discipline that interwove her passion for the arts with her knowledge of history, culture, archaeology, anthropology, geography, and interests in foreign languages and travel. She is inspired by her previous employment in museums, at universities, and on archeological projects as well as her travels as an exchange student, graduate student, and a tour leader with EF College Study Tours as well as developing student travel opportunities with colleagues at Canisius. She demonstrates her enthusiasm for the accomplishments of artists, architects, art historians and art critics in a myriad of methods used to assist her students in negotiating their own path through art history. These approaches to teaching art history include a focus on experiential learning, dynamic in-class projects and presentations, and unique internship opportunities. Widenor began teaching in the art history program at Canisius University once she completed her master’s degree in art history and strives to instruct and inspire future generations of museum employees and museumgoers and to prepare students to be enthusiastic and insightful participants in our visual-centric culture. Her research, public lectures, and publications center on her participation on an archaeological survey project on the island of Crete and contemporary art practices concerning self-portraiture. 

Set against the rich and dynamic backdrop of Renaissance Italy, at a time of skepticism and freethinking, regional war and religious upheaval, LEONARDO da VINCI brings the artist’s towering achievements to life through his prolific personal notebooks, primary and secondary accounts of his life, and on-camera interviews with modern scholars, artists, engineers, inventors, and admirers. The film weaves together an international group of experts, as well as others influenced by Leonardo who continue to find a connection between his artistic and scientific explorations and life today. As the filmmaker and Leonardo admirer Guillermo del Toro says at the beginning of the film, “the modernity of Leonardo is that he understands that knowledge and imagination are intimately related.” The entire series premieres on WNED PBS on November 18 & 19, 2024.

More about the film: https://kenburns.com/films/leonardo-da-vinci/

Monday, September 30 at 6pm

Buffalo Toronto Public Media

WNED PBS Studios

140 Lower Terrace 

Downtown Buffalo

Buffalo Toronto Public Media is conveniently located in downtown Buffalo at 140 Lower Terrace, near the I-190. The entrance to our parking lot is on Charles Street (also known as "Mark Russell Alley").

Production Credits: LEONARDO da VINCI in a production of Florentine Films and WETA Washington, D.C. Directed by Ken Burns, Sarah Burns and David McMahon. Written by David McMahon and Sarah Burns. Produced by Sarah Burns, David McMahon, Ken Burns and Tim McAleer. Edited by K.A. Miille and Woody Richman. Cinematography by Buddy Squires. Narrated by Keith David. The voice of Leonardo is read by the Italian actor Adriano Giannini. The musician and composer Caroline Shaw wrote and recorded original music for the film performed by Attacca Quartet, Sō Percussion and Roomful of Teeth. The executive in charge for WETA is John F. Wilson. Executive producer is Ken Burns.

Funding Credits: Corporate funding for LEONARDO da VINCI was provided by Bank of America. Major funding was provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and by The Better Angels Society and by its individual members The Paul and Sandra Montrone Family; Stephen A. Schwarzman; Diane and Hal Brierley; Carol and Ned Spieker; Michael and Sandy Collins; Mario J. Gabelli; The Lynch Foundation; McCloskey Family Charitable Trust; Cappy and Janie McGarr; and John and Leslie McQuown. Funding was also provided by Gilbert S. Omenn and Martha Darling; the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation; and the Robert and Mercedes Eichholz Foundation.

Local Leonardo da Vinci activities are offered by Buffalo Toronto Public Media and project partners Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Buffalo & Erie County Public Libraries, Buffalo Museum of Science, The Burchfield Penney Art Center, and The Foundry.