Plot Synopsis

Using personal stories of 26 survivors, seldom-seen photographs and rare archival footage, THE DUST BOWL chronicles America's worst manmade ecological disaster, when the decade-long drought during the 1930s followed the frenzied wheat boom of the "Great Plow-Up." This two-part, four-hour documentary brings to life stories of incredible human suffering and equally incredible perseverance, while conveying a morality tale about our relationship to the land that sustains us -- a lesson we ignore at our peril. THE DUST BOWL premiered at the Telluride Mountainfilm Festival in May 2012, just six months before its broadcast premiere on PBS.