Spring Break
Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea
By: Jay Slovacek
Issue date: 4/1/05 Section: Aggielife
Mistakes humans make // Many plagues, few pleasures
"Salton Sea" chronicles oddball residents in disaster area
Once the ultimate tailgate party, the Salton Sea was the home of countless fish frys and weekend vacations. Circumstances and mistakes have since left the Salton Sea in fantastic ruin.
After the tourists fled and the land speculation dried up, Salton City was left for dead. Some people stayed to protect their once-valuable investment; others remain because it was their only home.
Some locals are just too crazy for life anywhere else. These character gems are the meat of "Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea."
There's the old guy who stands naked next to the highway, swaying in the wind like a slab of beef jerky in tennis shoes. The directors visit the energetic and often unintelligible "Hunky Daddy" who greets them with a beer and a mooning. (The audience should prepare to avert their eyes for that scene.)
Slightly more lucid, Leonard Knight paints on a mound of clay with donated paint.
"Everything I know about painting, I learned myself," Knight said. "I never learned nothing from no Internet push button."
His "artwork" has a religious theme, and he lovingly adds to his painted "mountain" every day. "I love all paint, old paint, new paint, latex paint," Knight says.
That leaves a few sane residents to tell the story of the Salton Sea. "Plagues & Pleasures" seamlessly moves between the locals and experts, giving the viewer a balance between often cockeyed locals and sterile scientific fact.
"Plagues and Pleasures" views these locals with a slight amount of respect. The directors respect the resident's ability to endure hardship with so such amusing individuality. But the camera captures some of the uglier aspects of Salton City.
Much of the movie is spent surveying the incredible squalor of Salton City and neighboring Bombay Beach. Residents don't mention the mess; they only mention the people who inhabit the mess.
Drugs, alcohol and racism affect most residents. Nearly every interview has the local with a beer in hand.
"That's America, see?" says "Hunky Daddy."
Residents of Bombay Beach discuss "how the blacks get to shooting each other." To which one woman responds: "I'm glad I'm not like the prejudiced white people out here."
Like the salt, pesticides and decaying fish in Salton Sea, the locals seem poisoned by their experiences. Not everyone is bitter, but a sense of hopelessness is inescapable.
Directors Chris Metzer and Jeff Springer create a touching story that allows the colorful locals to recount the history. Never heavy-handed, "Plagues & Pleasures" exists like a slow drive through a small town. Everyone has a story.
For a 55 minute documentary, "Plagues & Pleasures" packs in lessons about greed, human error and the affection people have for home - even in the smelliest of places
"Salton Sea" chronicles oddball residents in disaster area
Once the ultimate tailgate party, the Salton Sea was the home of countless fish frys and weekend vacations. Circumstances and mistakes have since left the Salton Sea in fantastic ruin.
After the tourists fled and the land speculation dried up, Salton City was left for dead. Some people stayed to protect their once-valuable investment; others remain because it was their only home.
Some locals are just too crazy for life anywhere else. These character gems are the meat of "Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea."
There's the old guy who stands naked next to the highway, swaying in the wind like a slab of beef jerky in tennis shoes. The directors visit the energetic and often unintelligible "Hunky Daddy" who greets them with a beer and a mooning. (The audience should prepare to avert their eyes for that scene.)
Slightly more lucid, Leonard Knight paints on a mound of clay with donated paint.
"Everything I know about painting, I learned myself," Knight said. "I never learned nothing from no Internet push button."
His "artwork" has a religious theme, and he lovingly adds to his painted "mountain" every day. "I love all paint, old paint, new paint, latex paint," Knight says.
That leaves a few sane residents to tell the story of the Salton Sea. "Plagues & Pleasures" seamlessly moves between the locals and experts, giving the viewer a balance between often cockeyed locals and sterile scientific fact.
"Plagues and Pleasures" views these locals with a slight amount of respect. The directors respect the resident's ability to endure hardship with so such amusing individuality. But the camera captures some of the uglier aspects of Salton City.
Much of the movie is spent surveying the incredible squalor of Salton City and neighboring Bombay Beach. Residents don't mention the mess; they only mention the people who inhabit the mess.
Drugs, alcohol and racism affect most residents. Nearly every interview has the local with a beer in hand.
"That's America, see?" says "Hunky Daddy."
Residents of Bombay Beach discuss "how the blacks get to shooting each other." To which one woman responds: "I'm glad I'm not like the prejudiced white people out here."
Like the salt, pesticides and decaying fish in Salton Sea, the locals seem poisoned by their experiences. Not everyone is bitter, but a sense of hopelessness is inescapable.
Directors Chris Metzer and Jeff Springer create a touching story that allows the colorful locals to recount the history. Never heavy-handed, "Plagues & Pleasures" exists like a slow drive through a small town. Everyone has a story.
For a 55 minute documentary, "Plagues & Pleasures" packs in lessons about greed, human error and the affection people have for home - even in the smelliest of places
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