For Immediate Release
Friday, October 12, 2012
Contacts: Vickie Devenport, WSIU Outreach Coordinator, (618) 453-6148, vickie.devenport@wsiu.org
Local Film Screening to Preview Ken Burns documentary, The Dust Bowl
Carbondale, Ill. -- WSIU Public Broadcasting, the public media arm of Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIUC), and Artstarts in Marion will host a free sneak preview and discussion of Ken Burns' upcoming documentary, THE DUST BOWL, on Tuesday, October 23 at 7pm in the Artstarts building at 104 S. Van Buren in Marion, Ill.
Mindy Scott, District Conservationist for the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), will facilitate a discussion after the film. Ms Scott has a special interest in the history of the dust bowl and professional experience in conservation practices.
THE DUST BOWL, a new two-part, four-hour documentary by Burns, will air November 18 and 19, 2012 at 7pm on WSIU-TV 8.1 and WUSI-TV 16.1, with repeats the same night at 9pm and during WSIU-TV's overnight schedule on November 19 and November 20 at 12am & 2am, and again on November 21 and November 22 at 2am.
The film chronicles the environmental catastrophe that, throughout the 1930s, destroyed the farmlands of the Great Plains, turned prairies into deserts, and unleashed a pattern of massive, deadly dust storms that for many seemed to herald the end of the world. It was the worst manmade ecological disaster in American history. A preview is available at www.pbs.org/dustbowl.
“The Dust Bowl was a heartbreaking tragedy in the enormous scale of human suffering it caused. But perhaps the biggest tragedy is that it was preventable,” said Burns. “This was an ecosystem -- a grassland -- that had evolved over millions of years to adjust to the droughts, high winds and violent weather extremes so common to that part of the country. In the space of a few decades at the start of the 20th century, that grassland was uprooted in the middle of a frenzied wheat boom. When a drought returned, all that exposed soil took to the skies, and people worried that the breadbasket of the nation would become the next Sahara desert. If we show the same neglect to the limits of nature now as we did then, it is entirely possible that this could happen again.”
For more information about this film screening, contact Vickie Devenport at (618) 453-6148 or vickie.devenport@wsiu.org.
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About Artstarts
Artstarts is a Southern Illinois based, non-profit charitable organization devoted to making the "Arts" accessible to all Southern Illinois children, and providing opportunities in the arts to a diverse population with the goal of including those who do not now participate in art programs due to cultural or economic barriers.
About WSIU Public Broadcasting
WSIU Public Broadcasting is licensed to the Board of Trustees of Southern Illinois University and is an integral part of the College of Mass Communication & Media Arts on the Carbondale campus. The WSIU stations reach more than three million people across five states and beyond through three digital public television channels, three public radio stations, a radio information service, a website, and an education and community outreach department.
WSIU's mission is to improve the quality of life of the people they serve. The WSIU stations partner with other community organizations to promote positive change and to support the academic and public service missions of Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Learn more and get the latest station news online at wsiu.org and on WSIU's Facebook and Twitter pages.
WSIU's programs and services are partially funded by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency.
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