The Dust Bowl (miniseries)

The Dust Bowl is a 2012 American television documentary miniseries directed by Ken Burns which aired on PBS on November 18 and 19, 2012. The two-part miniseries recounts the impact of the Dust Bowl on the United States during the Great Depression of the 1930s.

The Dust Bowl
Genre	Documentary
Written by	Dayton Duncan
Directed by	Ken Burns
Starring	Patricia Clarkson Kevin Conway Amy Madigan Carolyn McCormick
Narrated by	Peter Coyote
Theme music composer	Craig Mellish
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of episodes	2
Production
Producers	Dayton Duncan Ken Burns Julie Dunfey
Cinematography	Buddy Squires Stephen McCarthy
Editors	Craig Mellish Ryan Gifford
Running time	240 minutes
Production companies	Florentine Films WETA-TV
Original release
Release	November 18 (2012-11-18) – November 19, 2012 (2012-11-19)

The series features the voices of Patricia Clarkson, Peter Coyote, and Carolyn McCormick.^[1]

Episodes

1. Episode One: The Great Plow-Up
2. Episode Two: Reaping the Whirlwind

Bonus Episodes

1. A Land of Haze
2. Grab a Root and Growl
3. Interviews
4. The Dust Bowl Eyewitnesses
5. The Dust Bowl Legacy
6. Uncovering the Dust Bowl

Other uses

Interviews from the documentary were used in the 2014 film Interstellar, that deals with massive dust storms in a near future.^[2]

Critical reception

The Dust Bowl has received generally positive reviews from television critics and parents of young children. Robert Lloyd of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "Timely...exceptional."^[3] Historians on the other hand raised concerns about some of the evidence and research ignored by the film makers.^[4]

See also

• Caroline Henderson
• Sanora Babb – works referenced in series
• American Experience (season 10) – Surviving the Dust Bowl aired on PBS in 1998
• The Plow That Broke the Plains (1936 documentary by Pare Lorentz)