Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea

Infobox Film


name = Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea
director = Chris Metzler
Jeff Springer
narrator = John Waters
music = Friends of Dean Martinez
language = English
runtime = 73 minutes
country = USA
distributor = Tilapia Film
New Video/Docurama
released = Theatrical - 2/24/06
Home Video - 9/25/07
website = http://saltonseadoc.com
amg_id = 1:306475
imdb_id = 0438327

"Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea" is a documentary by filmmakers Chris Metzler and Jeff Springer , with narration by John Waters and music by Friends of Dean Martinez.

Release

The film premiered at the 2004 Slamdance Film Festival. With the addition of John Waters as the film’s narrator, the new version of the film premiered at the Provincetown Film Festival, in Provincetown, Massachusetts, hosted by Mr. Waters himself. The film opened in theaters on April 20th, 2007 and continues to screen theatrically throughout the United States and Canada.

A shorter, more environmentally themed version of the film aired on the Sundance Channel's GREEN programming block, along with occasional broadcasts on the PBS station, KQED, "Truly, CA" documentary TV series.

The DVD of "Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea" was released by the home video distributor, Docurama/New Video, on September 25th, 2007.

Response

In screening at more than 200 festivals in twenty countries, "Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea" has won 35 awards for Best Documentary and received the following accolades in the press.

"One-of-a-kind documentary... A startlingly funny portrait of Gothic Americana." - [http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0601/p14s02-almo.html "Christian Science Monitor - June 1, 2007"]

"Droll, deadpan... A fascinating, nutty story, a kind of Chinatown gone wrong (or gone more wrong.)" - [http://chicago.metromix.com/movies/review/movie-review-plagues-and/163872/content "Chicago Tribune - June 1, 2007"]

"Historically thorough and thoroughly hysterical." - [http://www.laweekly.com/film+tv/film-reviews/film-reviews-hot-fuzz-redline-and-more/16174/ "LA Weekly - April 19th, 2007"]

"A heartbreaking, sidesplitting parade of humanity." - [http://www.villagevoice.com/nyclife/0629,tudor,73883,15.html "The Village Voice - July 18th, 2006"]

"Four stars! Offering you a vacation like you've never had before... in this charming, yet sad documentary." - [http://www.filmthreat.com/index.php?section=reviews&Id=6465 "Film Threat - September 23rd, 2005"]

References

*Metzler, Chris and Springer, Jeff - "Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea" - Tilapia Film, [2006] - Thorough history of the first 100 years at the Salton Sea and the prospects for the future - http://www.saltonseadoc.com/.

External links

* [http://saltonseadoc.com "Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea" - Official film website"]
* [http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/plagues_and_pleasures_on_the_salton_sea Rotten Tomatoes Movie Database page]
* [http://www.myspace.com/plaguesandpleasures "MYSPACE page"]
* [http://shuffleboil.com/2008/04/07/christopher-metzler-plagues-and-pleasures-on-the-salton-sea/ 2008 interview with Christopher Metzler]