“A Real Homecoming”: David Schmidt ’05 Channels a Lifelong Love of History into Latest Documentary Series, “The American Revolution”

“I tell people I grew up in 1774,” said Hampton Roads Academy alumnus and filmmaker David Schmidt ’05. Now, with his most recent documentary, The American Revolution (2025), which he produced and co-directed with Sarah Botstein and the legendary Ken Burns, Schmidt is excited to share a slice of the rich history that surrounded him during his childhood in the Historic Triangle.

The 12-hour, six-part series, premiering November 16 on PBS, follows a diverse cast of men and women who lived through a period of dramatic global upheaval—rank-and-file Continental soldiers and militiamen, Patriot leaders, American Loyalists, British officers, German mercenaries, Native combatants and civilians, free and enslaved African Americans, French and Spanish allies, and refugees on both sides of the revolutionary struggle. In the leadup to the U.S. semiquincentennial, the documentary will not simply glorify the American colonists’ fight for independence, but rather highlight the contradictions of an imperfect society’s contest for liberty and the legacies of the conflict that reverberate worldwide to the present day.

Though he spent his early life just minutes from the Yorktown Battlefield, Schmidt found his ten years working on The American Revolution to be an eye-opening experience. “I understand my country far better than I did before,” he said. “The American Revolution is a big story, and it belongs to everyone.”

Schmidt considers it a tremendous gift to be able to tell such stories as a career. And his time as a student at HRA played a crucial role in sparking the passion for American history that set him on this path.

Deep Roots in History

For Schmidt, it is little wonder that he was “obsessed with history from an early age.”

After his family moved to James City County during his toddler years, Schmidt’s mother strongly encouraged her children to pursue extracurricular activities at Colonial Williamsburg. Young David would welcome early America into his life with open arms, following the example of his four older siblings, all of whom graduated from HRA—Danny Schmidt ’96, Andy Schmidt ’98, Lisa Schmidt Ha-Ngoc ’00, and Kita Schmidt McCord ’00.

Schmidt first got involved with the living history museum around age seven and participated in the Colonial Williamsburg Fife and Drum Corps from age ten until his mid-teens. He also worked for one summer on the ongoing excavation at Historic Jamestowne, where his brother Danny was already employed as an archaeologist.

But the colonial period was not Schmidt’s only interest within American history. When he was about eight years old, his brothers introduced him to Ken Burns’ classic series The Civil War (1990), igniting a love for Burns’ work that he has never shaken.

Schmidt’s fascination with the American past would only grow thanks to a host of excellent teachers at HRA—most of all the late Larry Cunningham. Schmidt was a student in four of Cunningham’s classes, starting in eighth grade and continuing with AP United States History and two semester-long senior courses in government and America since 1941. In Cunningham’s classroom, excerpts from The Civil War again made their way into his life.

He often connects with fellow HRA alumni, whether they attended school with him or not, over their profound shared appreciation of Cunningham’s teaching. “American history is a great story,” Schmidt said, “and I was lucky to get the opportunity to hear him tell it so many times.”

From Student to Storyteller

As he prepared to graduate from Dartmouth College with a degree in history in 2009, Schmidt was certain he wanted to tell the story of American history as well. How he would do so, however, was an open question. He considered both teaching and work in museums, but he ultimately “fell into” documentary filmmaking.

By chance, on a visit to career services late in his senior year, Schmidt came across a shadowing offering at Florentine Films, Burns’ production company. He leapt at the opportunity.

It was not long before Schmidt decided to devote his professional life to creating documentaries. His shadowing experience led to an internship at the company and, four months later, a full-time position as a researcher, apprentice editor, and script supervisor for The Roosevelts (2014).

This series would mark the first of many collaborations between Schmidt and Burns. The HRA alumnus went on to win the Jane Mercer Footage Researcher of the Year award for The Vietnam War (2017), a project on which he also worked closely with writer Geoffrey C. Ward and helped coordinate postproduction. Five years later, he and Burns produced the two-part biography Benjamin Franklin (2022).

Across each of these projects, Schmidt said, the “bedrock of knowledge about American history” that he obtained in Larry Cunningham’s classroom consistently served him well. Particularly while working on The Vietnam War, he found that many of his colleagues did not possess the wealth of reference points that he had internalized in an “awesome class” at HRA.

The Story Comes Full-Circle

Schmidt described The American Revolution, his latest project with Florentine Films, as “a real homecoming.” He and his team filmed more footage on the Peninsula than anywhere else in the country, in no small part because of the local community’s commitment to historic preservation and interpretation.

On September 20, 2025, Schmidt gave this community a sneak preview of his new series, including scenes no public audience had viewed before, at a special screening at Yorktown Battlefield, hosted by Colonial National Historical Park in partnership with WHRO Public Media, York County, the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, and the VA250 Commission.

“It was truly exceptional,” said HRA Director of Alumni Relations Tommy Yevak ’83, who had the privilege of attending the event. “Our students at HRA can become whatever they put their hearts and minds to, and David is another great example of that. I’m proud to have been his Middle School P.E. teacher for multiple years, but I’m prouder to be his friend and a big, big admirer of his work in filmmaking.”

“David has that ability to make the ground come alive in such a historic, hallowed place,” Yevak added.

But for Schmidt, it is the places themselves—storied locations like Yorktown, Jamestown, and Colonial Williamsburg—that bring history to life.

“History really is everywhere,” he said. For students at HRA, fortunate enough to have history on vivid display right in their backyard, Schmidt’s advice was simple: “Seek it out. Immerse yourself in it. Better understand your community.”