On November 18 and 19 (Sunday/Monday), PBS stations will be premiering
THE DUST BOWL: A Film By Ken Burns. You can learn more about this four-hour documentary, view film clips, and check your local listings for air times at PBS's "The Dust Bowl"
website. The film will be shown in two parts over two nights: "The Great Plow Up" and "Reaping the Whirlwind." If you miss the film on those dates, it looks like it'll be repeated.
In this documentary, children/teenagers who lived in the affected areas during those years and one adult survivor are interviewed. There is footage of everyday life during that time, which really brings home just how devastating the drought/dust storms were during that decade. The Dust Bowl/Great Depression years were such a difficult period in our nation's history; it’s important to remember, so history will not repeat.
Here's a synopsis of the movie:
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THE DUST BOWL chronicles the worst man-made ecological disaster in American history, in which the frenzied wheat boom of the "Great Plow-Up," followed by a decade-long drought during the 1930s nearly swept away the breadbasket of the nation. Vivid interviews with twenty-six survivors of those hard times, combined with dramatic photographs and seldom seen movie footage, bring to life stories of incredible human suffering and equally incredible human perseverance. It is also a morality tale about our relationship to the land that sustains us—a lesson we ignore at our peril.
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