After “The American Buffalo” last year, The Park Theatre will again host a sneak preview of an upcoming Ken Burns documentary when it screens the PBS documentary, “Leonardo da Vinci” Sunday, July 21, at 4 p.m., as a fundraiser for the theater.

The four-hour, two-part documentary, which was made by Burns, his daughter Sarah Burns and his son-in-law David McMahon, studies the life and career of the Italian polymath of the 15th century. This film will be Burns’ first documentary to feature a history topic outside the United States. The film debuts on PBS in November. Sarah Burns and McMahon will attend the event for a question-and-answer session after the film.

From Leonardo’s birth out of wedlock to a notary and peasant woman and apprenticeship to a Florentian painter to his days as a military architect, cartographer, sculptor and muralist for hire, the film will offer a portrait of a man whose “Mona Lisa,” “The Last Supper” and “The Vitruvian Man” are among the most-celebrated works of art, but whose artistic endeavors sometimes seemed an afterthought to his pursuits in science and engineering.

“No single person can speak to our collective effort to understand the world and ourselves,” stated Burns. “But Leonardo had a unique genius for inquiry, aided by his extraordinary skills as an artist and scientist, that helps us better understand the natural world that we are part of and to appreciate more fully what it means to be alive and human.”

The musician and composer Caroline Shaw recorded original music for the film, which was performed by the Attacca Quartet, Sō Percussion and Roomful of Teeth. The Italian actor Adriano Giannini reads Leonardo's voice. Actor Keith David serves as the film’s narrator. 

The talkback will be moderated by Dayton Duncan, the writer of multiple Burns films who also hosted last year’s question-and-answer on “The American Buffalo.”

Tickets are $20, and children 12 and under are free. A VIP reception will occur before the film, at 3 p.m., and it includes a personal meeting with Sarah Burns and MacMahon. VIP tickets are $35 each, and they include the film and the special reception.

The Park Theatre is at 19 Main St. in Jaffrey.