The Grapes of Wrath: The Ghost of Modern America

Priscilla Pizzato
2019-10-02


5
54 min

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.

Cast

Name Character Team
Denis Podalydès Reciter (voice) Unowned
Gavin Jones Self, professor, Stanford University Unowned
Susan Schillinglaw Self, professor of English, San Jose State University Unowned
Marie-Christine Lemardeley Self, professor of English literature Unowned
Pap Ndiaye Self, historian Unowned
Delphine Coulin Self, writer Unowned
Sharon Garrison Self, former resident of Arvin Farm Labor Camp Unowned
Dale Gibson Self, former resident of Arvin Farm Labor Camp Unowned
John Steinbeck Self (archive footage) Unowned