Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea

Once known as the "California Riviera", the Salton Sea is called one of America's worst ecological disasters: a fetid, stagnant, salty lake, coughing up dead fish and birds by the thousands. Yet a few hardy eccentrics hang on to hope, including a roadside nudist waving at passing European tourists, a man building a religious mountain out of mud and paint, beer-loving Hungarian Revolutionary Hunky Daddy, and the real-estate "Ronald McDonald" known simply as The Landman. Through their perceptions and misperceptions, the strange history and unexpected beauty of the Salton Sea is revealed.

"Accidentally" created by an engineering error in 1905, reworked in the 50's as a world class vacation destination for the rich and famous, and then suddenly abandoned after a series of hurricanes, floods, and fish die-offs, and finally almost saved by Congressman Sonny Bono, the Salton Sea has a bittersweet past.

Now amongst the ruins of this man-made mistake, these few remaining people struggle to keep a remodeled version of the dream alive. However, this most unique community is now threatened by the nearby megalopolises of Los Angeles and San Diego, as they attempt to take the agricultural run-off that barely sustains the Sea. The fate of this so-called ecological time bomb and the community that surrounds it remain uncertain, as the Salton Sea might just dry up.

While PLAGUES & PLEASURES covers the historical, economic, political, and environmental issues that face the Sea, it more importantly offers up an offbeat portrait of the eccentric and individualistic people who populate its shores. It is an epic western tale of fantastic real estate ventures and failed boomtowns, inner-city gangs fleeing to white small town America, and the subjective notion of success and failure amidst the ruins of the past. Hair-raising and hilarious, part history lesson, part cautionary tale and part portrait of one of the strangest communities you've ever seen, this is the American Dream gone as stinky as a dead carp.

“Highly entertaining.” (San Francisco Chronicle)

“California dreaming meets good old American eccentricity and ecological emergency in the story of the Salton Sea.” (Hollywood Reporter)

PLAGUES will be preceded by the short film LSD A GO GO: Things got a little out of hand in the late 1950s as the Central Intelligence Agency embarked upon the MK-ULTRA major drug and mind control program. The CIA proceeded to study the effects of LSD on themselves and others. This short combines public domain scare films with a brief overview of the controversy surrounding CIA scientist Frank Olson's 1953 "suicide" in New York City. LSD A GO GO was completed on a budget of $15.00. The film made its world premiere in 2004 at Sundance.