The new Ken Burns film, The Dust Bowl, headlined an "NEH at the
White House" event July 26 as prominent panelists discussed the
history of what filmmakers call "the worst man-made ecological
disaster in U.S. history." The two-part, four hour film
chronicles the monumental dust storms and lethal drought that
devastated the Southern Plains states for a decade in the midst
of the Great Depression. The National Endowment for the
Humanities-funded The Dust Bowl premieres on PBS stations across
the nation on November 18 and 19th, 2012. “Given the drought
that today besieges a great swath of the corn, soybean and wheat
belt, a sense of contemporary tragedy looms over the historical
events chronicled in The Dust Bowl,” said NEH Chairman Jim
Leach. “Normally, it is positive to suggest that a film is
timely. Unfortunately, timeliness in this case has a traumatic
dimension.” The preview screening was followed by a panel
discussion moderated by Ann Yonkers, the co-director of
FRESHFARM Markets, a nonprofit organization t