Our Daily Bread

Film evenings begin with potluck refreshments and social hour at 6:30 pm,
followed by the film at 7:30 pm, followed by a discussion after the film.

Our Daily Bread
by King Vidor

This historic film of the Great Depression of the 1930s is filled with wonderful period pieces — mostly carefully chosen newsreel and movie clips — that weave a woeful tale of the Depression. Strangely enough, it’s exhilarating, showing the courage and perseverance of individual Americans as well as the country as they faced the 1929 Crash and struggled through the grim thirties. This classic film is actually an uneven mix of brilliance and corn bread, good old American know-how and “unAmerican” socialism mixed and stirred. Looking back, we see that our current hardships are not as bad as that of the former generations and this film might give us encouragement to overcome hardships of today.

The film depicts a couple, down on their luck during the Great Depression, who move to a farm to try to make a go of living off the land. They don’t have a clue at first, but soon find other people down on their luck to help them. Soon they have a collective of people, some from the big city, who work together on the farm. There is a severe drought, killing the crops. The couple arouse the cooperative to discover a way to fight the drought and bring back the dying crops. Everyone on the farm dig a ditch by hand almost two miles long to divert water from a creek to irrigate the crops. The film depicts the virtues of collective, non-corporate action, self-sufficiency, and the rewards of hard-work rather than the rewards of rapacious finance capitalism.

Wheelchair accessible around the corner at 411 28th Street

$5 donations are accepted