Bombay Beach (2011)

Directed by

Alma Har'el

Genre

documentary film

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 18m

Rated

18

Rating

6.4 of 10 from 19 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This documentary takes place at the Salton Sea, a failed resort community in California. It follows three residents and blends real footage with choreographed dance and music.

dreamlikepoeticstylizedmelancholicexperimentalslow-pacedobservationalelegiac

What happens

Bombay Beach is a 2011 documentary film directed and produced by Israeli filmmaker Alma Har'el. The film was nominated for an Independent Spirit "Truer than Fiction" Award, won "Best Feature Documentary" at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival, and has been taught in several universities including Duke University and Harvard's Sensory Ethnography Lab and Film Center as a genre redefining work. Taking place in the Salton Sea, a rusting relic of a failed 1950s development boom, Bombay Beach is a dreamlike poem that sets three personal stories to a stylized melding of observational documentary and choreographed dance to music specially composed for the film by Zach Condon of the band Beirut, and songs by Bob Dylan. Filmmaker Terry Gilliam called the film, "A beautiful, quirky, and ultimately very moving film about the American Dream on the edge of a desert sea." (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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• SOS: The Salton Sea Walk (2017)
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• Miracle in the Desert: The Rise and Fall of the Salton Sea (2020)
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• Soul Surfer (2011)
• The Art of Flight (2011)
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