In 1929 the world was launched into the darkest time in modern economic history. 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.