Ken Burns & Dayton Duncan On “The Dust Bowl”
By Abbie Bernstein

In the 1930s, particularly between 1934 and 1936, the prairie regions of the United States and Canada were afflicted with terrible dust storms that blackened the air, choked people and animals and made certain areas uninhabitable.

Famed documentary maker Ken Burns (THE CIVIL WAR, BASEBALL, THE WAR, JAZZ) and his producing/writing/researching partner Dayton Duncan have now turned their filmmaking sights on this epic social and ecological disaster. The result is the four-hour, two-part documentary miniseries THE DUST BOWL, which airs on PBS this coming Sunday and Monday, 8 PM to 10 PM.

In person, Burns, originally a native of Brooklyn, New York, looks to be about half his actual age (he was born in 1953). Duncan has an imposing frame and a gentlemanly manner, quick to jump up and get a glass of water when an interviewer has a coughing fit.
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