Bread Lines and Soup Kitchens (film #3 in the 1929 Stock Market Crash and Great Depression section of WPA Film Library). [Category: News]

Moving silent footage, some of it in color, of desperate unemployed people, some of them homeless, getting food from bread lines and soup kitchens, scanning employment notices anxiously, and sometimes being reduced to sleeping in doorways or going through garbage cans for food. These images are quite moving and have great historical value as a document to a desperate time in our history. Particularly striking is footage of San Francisco’s Mother Jordan dishing out soup to the hungry with both hands.

Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: N/A. Weirdness: **. Historical Interest: *****. Overall Rating: ****.