Leonardo da Vinci preview screening: Building relationships through film

For a preview screening of the new documentary Leonardo da Vinci on Nov. 13, JSAC 1011 was transformed into a movie theater — complete with buttery popcorn aroma wafting from a machine manned by Professor Scott Corrollo. 

Directed by Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, and David McMahon, the film about the life of the Renaissance Italian polymath is an epic look at his artistic, scientific, and philosophical singularity. The Schuchman Deaf Documentary Center and the Art and Media Design Program organized a visit by Sarah Burns and McMahon, who screened 38 minutes of clips, provided commentary, and took questions from the audience.

“Da Vinci was a brilliant, and fascinating, individual in so many ways. He understood creativity and innovation, attributes that are so highly valued in our academic community and 21st-century global workplace,” explained Dr. Brian Greenwald, ’96, Director of the Schuchman Center. 

The directors noted that one of the many remarkable things about da Vinci was his imagination. Despite living in an era with limited technology, he dreamed up an impressive number of inventions — many of which were actually developed by people hundreds of years later. “It makes him seem very modern: his imagination, his curiosity, and the wonder that surrounds his work,” McMahon said.

During the Q&A, David McMahon and Sarah Burns explained that they found da Vinci particularly appealing because they had never worked with a subject from 500 years ago. They had to “find another kind of visual language and very different ways of visually telling the story. It was a challenge, but also exciting,” McMahon said. With prior films, they could draw on footage, audio, photographs, and other media to build a narrative, but Leonardo da Vinci required more creativity. 

The result is that viewers see da Vinci’s words and drawings alongside beautiful images of Italy, organic forms found in nature, and 20th-century inventions that seem to replicate his sketches. ”He’s making profound connections between the laws of nature and seeing if he can use them in the things he’s making,” said McMahon. To help viewers visualize those connections for themselves, the film is often presented with different arrangements of split screens. “Splitting the screen hopefully helps make him feel as dynamic as the way we feel he is,” McMahon remarked.

The Schuchman Center regularly hosts film screenings that bring the academic community together through shared experiences of viewing, reflecting on, and discussing a film. This event was particularly meaningful because it is an extension of Gallaudet’s relationship with McMahon.

In March 2016, the Schuchman Center hosted McMahon to show and discuss clips from The Central Park Five, which he also co-directed. He was accompanied by two of the wrongfully accused people to a packed auditorium, and Greenwald recalls that many classes at Gallaudet used the film to prompt discussion on issues of law, cultural studies, race, and social justice.

“Since then, we’ve kept in touch with David on our documentary work. He has been so generous with his time and expertise, and we have learned so much from him,” Greenwald said. McMahon is a creative consultant for Greenwald’s recent $3M award from the National Science Foundation to make a documentary film about deaf test subjects in NASA’s early space studies. Before the screening, McMahon spent the morning advising the Gallaudet team on finding a dramatic arc and discussing various filmic devices on this exciting project.

PBS first broadcast the four-hour Leonardo da Vinci in two parts, “The Disciple of Experience,” on November 18-19, and “Painter-God” on November 19-20. You can stream it here while it’s still available.