PBS doc-maker Ken Burns is the next subject of a TIME 10 Questions interview, and time.com is soliciting questions for him right now. Burns’ next documentary is The National Parks: America’s Best Idea, a twelve-hour, six-part series starting Sept. 27.
I’ve been watching it, and while it’s full of staggering nature-porn footage—it’s a sort of PBS-Americana version of Planet Earth in parts—there’s also a lot of historical substance to it. Going back to the mid-19th-century origins of the parks system (with the likes of Yellowstone and Yosemite), it looks at the struggle to conserve wildlife against development and private interests, asking questions about America’s priorities, the role of government and the egalitarian idea that all Americans should jointly own the best real estate in the country.
Burns’ last documentary was The War in 2007; reportedly he has films about both President Roosevelts in the works and eventually plans a documentary on the Vietnam war. Ask your questions about The National Parks or anything else Burns-related here at time.com. Just keep your inquiries less than twelve hours in length.