1929

Director William Karel examines the biggest stock market crash in history, which occurred on the New York Stock Exchange 80 years ago -- Black Thursday, October 24, 1929. In this film, a wide range of economists and historians take turns discussing the causes of the crash and its economic and political consequences. These included acute poverty and the rise of the extreme right, both of which were to have a considerable impact on the decade to come. uses a wealth of black-and-white archive footage to illustrate what the experts have to say. Part One, , analyzes the year in which the crash took place. In the build-up to Black Thursday, we get cheerful music from the 1920s, women dancing in lineups, and the latest car designs being paraded through the streets of New York. Mass consumption is on the rise, with the automobile, the washing machine, and the refrigerator symbolizing a new age of wealth. The middle class has also plunged into stock trading, and the economy seems more prosperous than ever. All is well, until that fateful day. "The crisis of 1929 was like the perfect storm, in which all these improbable things came together in the wrong time in the wrong way." Part Two, , looks at the 1930s, focusing particularly on President Franklin D. Roosevelt's role. concludes by connecting these past events to the current financial crisis.