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Lecture 11 was conducted differently than the others. This lecture was about the Dust Bowl, and we watched to videos relating to this subject. The first film was "The Plow that Broke the Plains." It wasn't widely accepted on the Plains, and later the film was repealed and the last few minutes were deleted. The ending of the film showed the agenda of the movie. The agenda or meaning was the plains people needed help and the federal government would do the job to get them started over on the right foot again. It was basically a propaganda film. The second film was "Rain for the Earth." This film was more hopeful than the other movie. The film said farmers are struggling but unafraid. The overall message was hang in there, things will get better, and the rain will come.

One of the things I enjoyed about this lecture was the change in pace. We switched things around a bit, and we still learned about the Dust Bowl. It was interesting to watch these films and study them because they were made during the Depression and the Dust Bowl. This way you can become familiar with what people thought at the time and what messages were being presented. We learned in class that every documentary was some sort of agenda behind it, and this was true in these two films. There were a lot of hidden things in these films. "The Plow that Broke the Plains" has a meaning in the title. It's the plow that broke (or ruined, destroyed) the plains. There has also a minor theme of capitalism being a cause of the hard times. The second film had a biblical metaphor by using sheep to say farmers were the "good shepards" who take care of the animals.