When the World Breaks

Plot Summary

In 1929 the world was launched into the darkest time in modern economic history: The Great Depression. That same year, Ernest Hemingway wrote: "The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong in the broken places." "When the World Breaks" is a film about creativity and survival during the Great Depression of the 1930s, with striking parallels to current times. Depression-era life and art come alive with rare film clips and personal stories from survivors like Ray Bradbury, Jerry Stiller, Buzz Aldrin and Phyllis Diller to take us beyond the bread lines and dust bowls into a vibrant cinematic portrait of this formative decade in American history.