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Plagues & Pleasures of the Salton Sea
Chris Metzler & Jeff Springer, USA, documentary, 67 min., 2004

The story of the Salton Sea; once a vision of paradise, now an ecological apocalypse – is as American as Taxi Driver. In the 1950s there was a real estate gold rush in the desert and land speculators ran amok while developers created the Salton sea and promoted it as California’s “Riviera.” Today, the sea stands still, millions of dead fish rot on its shores, half-flooded vacation homes teeter as though they were on stilettoes and a putrid smell lingers in the air.

This is an ecological disaster played out in real time. Amidst this flooded and failed boomtown are the residents: a man the neighbourhood children taunt as the local paedophile; a trailer-hermit who spits venom at any attempts to clean up the sea and a Stetson wearing real estate entrepreneur who’s just waiting for the sea’s revival like some member of an abandoned cargo cult; even Sonny Bono makes an appearance as the ambitious politician with a failed plan. ‘I Got You Babe’ he sang, before meeting his premature end on a distant ski slope. This is a tale only Americans could spin. – M.S.L

Chris Metzler’s directing and producing work has resulted in frequent partnerships with Jeff Springer. Together they have criss-crossed the United States, before finally “forsaking their souls to commercial LA rock n’roll.” These misadventures eventually culminated in them winning a Billboard Magazine Music Video Award.

Jeff Springer was born in California, raised in Hawaii, and educated at the University of Southern California Film School. After spending a winter in Russia, he returned to Los Angeles to direct music videos, shorts, and edit for UPN, Fox, Geffen Records, and Lucasfilm. Eventually he fled to San Francisco to work on Plagues and Pleasures—the duo’s first feature documentary for which they have won the Robert Altman Award and the BAVC Videomaker Award.