Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea
Directed by
Salton Sea is one of America’s worst ecological disaster: a stagnant, fetid lake full of dead fish and birds. Created “accidentally” by a civil engineering error in 1905, it was developed in the 1950s as a tourist attraction for the rich and famous. Then, after a series of storms and floods, the tourist resort project was finally abandoned. Nowadays, very few believe the lake can be reclaimed. So while Plagues & Pleasures recounts the enormous historic, economical, political and social headaches Salton Sea has created, it also depicts an unusual portrait of the eccentric personalities inhabiting its shores. Narrated by John Waters, the master of trash, the film (part history lesson, part caustic commentary on the strangest communities ever seen) shows how the American Dream has gone the way of a fish in the Salton Sea: rotten and stinking...
Four years, two sunburned guys, a melted down video camera, 120° F, 75% humidity, sand storms, earthquakes, stupendous sunsets, flooded towns, palm trees, plane trips, double wides, bombing ranges, amputees, meth addicts, swinging seniors, naked Christians, mooning Hungarians, infatuated 11-year-olds, dead shit, botulism, toxic muck, an unfathomable stench and a whole lot of cash—all washed down with a warm 40 oz. Beer.
Geographical areas and populations
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the Creative Europe Media Program. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.