JIFF26 Dust Bowls and Jewish Souls

While much is known about the iconic poet and folk balladeer Woody Guthrie, who wrote ‘This Land is Your Land’ and influenced Bob Dylan, less is known about the vital role that Jewish culture played in shaping his private life, worldview and art.  In this delightful and inquisitive documentary, director Steven Pressman ventures beyond the Oklahoma hills of Guthrie’s youth and into the streets of New York City in the 1940s, where Guthrie is introduced to a vibrant Jewish culture that he wholeheartedly embraced. There, we learn about people like the prominent Yiddish poet (and Guthrie’s mother-in-law) Aliza Greenblatt, record producer Moses Asch, and entertainment manager Harold Leventhal, whose work and friendship would have a profound impact on Guthrie’s songwriting.    Utilising revealing interviews – including with Guthrie’s children Arlo and Nora – and rich with extensive archival footage, Dust Bowls and Jewish Souls weaves an inextricable thread between the story of American Yiddish art and culture and the Oklahoma Dust Bowl.