When Hurricane Sandy devastated much of the North East last month, it was a terrible natural disaster. In the 1930s, a disaster of a different kind tore through America and left its mark as the worst man-made ecological disaster: The Dust Bowl. Optimistic for a more fruitful future, Americans and European immigrants mistakenly (and regrettably) believed the Great Plains would serve as a profitable stomping ground for cultivating crops. When a succession of droughts plagued the Great Plains, the land that had once been a source of life for so many Americans was devastated and poor farming practices were to blame. With the grass gone, furious winds swept over the plains and produced dust storms that could have potentially eradicated the “breadbasket of America”.
Presented Nationally by WETA through PBS, award-winning director and filmmaker Ken Burns takes on this major event in our history in his newest documentary Ken Burns: The Dust Bowl. Interviews with survivors, archival photographs, and rare film footage tell the stories of those who lived through the “Dirty Thirties”. Survival, determination, human error, nature, and most importantly the relationship between humans and the land we live on, Ken Burns: The Dust Bowl shows how a nation overcame this catastrophe. Check out this interactive Dust Bowl experience on PBS.org!
Watch the two-part series of Ken Burns: The Dust Bowl Sunday, November 18 at 8:00pm and Monday, November 19 at 8:00pm on WETA TV26 and WETA HD.
Encore presentations of The Dust Bowl Part 1 on WETA TV26 & WETA HD:
November 18 at 10:00pm, November 19 at 2:30pm, November 22 at 2:00pm
Encore presentations of The Dust Bowl Part 2 on WETA TV26 & WETA HD:
November 19 at 10:00pm, November 20 at 2:30pm, November 22 at 4:00pm
daughter Sarah Burns. In 1989, five black and Hispanic teenagers were wrongly convicted of raping a white woman jogging through Central Park at night. In 2002, after the five had served their sentences, a man named Mathias Reyes, who was already serving life in prison for an unrelated crime, confessed to the attack. The courts cleared the five’s records, yet the damage was already done, with injured reputations and years of their lives lost. This new documentary highlights the media frenzy and injustice against the accused by presenting a different side to the case that rocked New York City with its racial and social implications. 