PBS Distribution and Paramount Home Media Distribution have officially announced that they will release on Blu-ray celebrated documentarian Ken Burns' The Dust Bowl. The release will be available for purchase on November 20th.
The two-part, four-hour documentary offers a dramatic depiction of how human blindness to the balance of nature destroyed the farmlands of the Great Plains throughout the 1930s as prairies were turned into deserts and massive deadly dust storms took the lives and hopes of many Americans. Yet amidst the heartbreaking tragedy, there are also tales of heroic perseverance as families found ways to survive and government agencies and farmers worked together to develop new farming and conservation methods.
Filled with seldom-seen movie footage, unpublished photographs, the songs of Woody Guthrie and the observations of two remarkable women who left behind eloquent written accounts, the film explores this critical time in American history in all its complexities. The fascinating documentary also features compelling interviews with 26 survivors of those hard times and may well be the last recorded testimony of the generation that lived through the Dust Bowl.
The Dust Bowl is narrated by Peter Coyote and features voiceovers by Carolyn McCormack, Patricia Clarkson, Kevin Conway, and Amy Madigan. The Blu-ray and DVD both feature over an hour of bonus material, including more eyewitness interviews, additional stories, revealing footage and a look at the legacy of the Dust Bowl.
