Description
President Roosevelt formed the Civilian Conservation Corps in a effort to put young unemployed men to work on the land. This is the story of thousands of young men between the ages of 17 and 23 who lived in CCC camps in Michigan during the Great Depression. They worked in forests, cutting and planting, lived together and sent money home to their needy families.
Educational Information
Catagory: Great Depression/New Deal
Educational Level: all grade levels
Warning:
Production Information
Director: William Jamerson
Producer: William Jamerson
Year: 1993
Run Time: 00:58:00
Color: B&W
Format: DVD
Public Domain?: No
Critics Corner Review
Rating: Very Good
This is a great documentary that gives the audience a window on what life was like in the Civilian Conservation Corps camps for the thousands of young men who joined the CCC. It was especially interesting to see the role that the CCC workers played in fighting forest fires and in reforestation. The film includes interesting social history by explaining how the CCC workers’ pay was sent home to their mothers and how that completely changed the family’s standard of living. The film also highlighted the role of blacks in the CCC and the system of separate camps for blacks and Native Americans. A special education teacher in the focus group thought that the song on the NRA and the CCC that is sung in the documentary would be great to teach to students in her classes. Since this is a vintage black and white documentary, the sound and picture quality is not what today’s student is used to. Most viewers’ rated the film very good to excellent for content, but fair to good for picture and sound quality.
