with filmmaker Jeff Springer
Squatters, nudists, retirees, barflies and the "Hunky Daddy" all speak their piece about the resort/mistake/ecological nightmare of the Salton Sea that they call home. A desert accidentally turned into a prime vacation spot to rival Palm Springs, today the whims of Mother Nature and general neglect have turned the Salton Sea into a land of ruined yacht clubs, buried subdivisions and massive die-offs of fish and birds. With a battle for water rights threatening to return the area to desert, long time residents show a genuine affection for the admittedly surreal landscape of a has-been resort town. Plagues and Pleasures explores a uniquely American ecological disaster that may strangely find its salvation in the untimely death of Sonny Bono.
2004, color, 1 hour 26 minutes, USA