Upcoming from Florentine Films

"The Dust Bowl," the newest release from Florentine Films written by Dayton Duncan and directed by Ken Burns premieres on PBS November 18th and 19th from 8:00-10:00 PM ET. Like all good documentaries about the past, this one shines a poignant light on our present day and our future. For those unfamiliar, the Dust Bowl refers to a series of devastating dust storms in the 1930s that ravaged hundreds of thousands of acres in American West, centering in the Pan-handle of Texas and Oklahoma. A ten-year drought combined with unsustainable agriculture practices to turn the soil to rootless dust. After it dried it up it flew away and drove hundreds of thousands of people with it. John Steinbeck memorialized these families in classics such as The Grapes of Wrath (1939) and Of Mice and Men (1937).  Of course, the film is not overtly political but parallels to current debates over things like "fracking" should be obvious. Expect a masterfully written and penetrating look into the surrounding events and a visceral evocation of the experience of ecological disaster, forced migration, and the journey west.