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UID:Indybay-18686557
SEQUENCE:18770637
CREATED:20110731T224100Z
DESCRIPTION:\nFilm evenings begin with potluck refreshments and social hour at  6:30 
 pm,\nfollowed by the film at  7:30 pm, followed by a discussion after the 
 film.\n\nThe Grapes of Wrath\nby John Ford\n\nThis classic film was the 
 most popular left-leaning film with a socialist theme of pre-World War II 
 Hollywood. It tells the story of the Joad family, uprooted from their home 
 in Oklahoma and sent hurtling into a new life in California.  The film 
 honestly and realistically recreates the socio-economic impact of the Great 
 Depression and a mid-30s drought upon one representative family — the 
 Joads, a poor midwest family forced off of their land.  The film’s theme 
 of an oppressed people’s epic move to a new home parallels the Biblical 
 story of Exodus.  The story is a part of American history.  It shows an 
 understanding of the hardships experienced by those who owned and lived on 
 farms in the dust bowl states during the late 1920s and 1930s. \n\nThe 
 film’s portrayal of rural life on the plains during the dust bowl years 
 is done with great accuracy and astute realism. The Joad family suffers the 
 misfortunes of the homeless in the Great Depression — trying to continue 
 to live the American dream!  Numerous families lost their farms and land 
 during this terrible time and headed west to find new lives. The plight of 
 the Joad family is universalized as a microcosm of the thousands of other 
 tenant farmers during this country’s time of crisis.  They all suffered 
 from the oppression imposed by the banks and big mechanized farm interests. 
  The dispossessed, migrant family’s departure from their windy and dusty 
 land, and their slow disintegration, provide insight into the thousands of 
 Oklahoma, Colorado, Texas Panhandle, and West Kansas families who were 
 evicted and uprooted from their dust bowl farm land and forced to search 
 westward in the inhospitable Eden of California for jobs and survival with 
 thousands of other migrant workers.  Migrant workers were driven to 
 California from the Midwestern states after losing their homes in the 
 throes of the depression: inclement weather, failed crops, land mortgaged 
 to the hilt and finally taken over by banks and large corporations when 
 credit lines ran dry.  Lured by promises of work aplenty, midwesterners 
 packed their belongings and trekked westward to the Golden State, only to 
 find themselves facing hunger, inhumane conditions, contempt, and 
 exploitation instead.  This raw, brutally direct, yet incredibly poetic 
 masterpiece film is testimony to the poverty, disillusion, and the 
 degradation of the human spirit of those times and continues to touch 
 nerves deeply rooted in modern society’s fabric — including and 
 particularly in California, where yesterday’s Okies are today’s 
 undocumented Mexicans.\n\nWheelchair accessible around the corner at  411  
 28th  Street\n\n$5 donations are accepted\n\n 
 https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/07/31/18686557.php
SUMMARY:The Grapes of Wrath
LOCATION:Humanist Hall\n390  27th  Street\nuptown Oakland, between Telegraph and 
 Broadway\nhttp://www.HumanistHall.org\n
URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/07/31/18686557.php
DTSTART:20110825T023000Z
DTEND:20110825T050000Z
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