The Grapes of Wrath: The Ghost of Modern America (2019)

The Grapes of Wrath: The Ghost of Modern America

2019

Documentary History

Synopsis

In April 1939, "Grapes of Wrath" entered the pantheon of literature with a bang. Americans are at loggerheads over the odyssey of the Joad family, tenant farmers from Oklahoma who, like thousands of others, were driven from their land during the Great Depression. Eighty years have passed since the famous work was published, and 90 years since the beginning of the Great Depression in 1929. To mark this occasion, the documentary examines the genesis of the novel, its themes, its renewed reception during the financial crisis of 2008.

Credits

Director

Priscilla Pizzato

Cast

Dale Gibson as Self, former resident of Arvin Farm Labor Camp

Delphine Coulin as Self, writer

Denis Podalydès as Reciter (voice)

Gavin Jones as Self, professor, Stanford University

John Steinbeck as Self (archive footage)

Marie-Christine Lemardeley as Self, professor of English literature

Pap Ndiaye as Self, historian

Sharon Garrison as Self, former resident of Arvin Farm Labor Camp