Plagues and Pleasures on The Salton Sea
Chris Metzler + Jeff Springer
Narrated by John Waters



Wednesday, October 17 at 7:30pm • Plagues and Pleasures
Thursday, October 18 at 7:30pm • Plagues and Pleasures
Friday, October 19 at 7:30pm • Plagues and Pleasures
Saturday, October 20 at 8pm • Plagues and Pleasures
$5 Tickets, Members Free

Once known as the “California Riviera”, the Salton Sea is now 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, 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.

Ghosts of Abu Ghraib
Rory Kennedy
2006/USA/82:00




Thursday, October 11 at 7:30pm • Ghosts of Abu Ghraib
Fridday, October 12 at 7:30pm • Ghosts of Abu Ghraib
Saturday, October 13 at 7:30pm • Ghosts of Abu Ghraib

There is no such thing as a little bit of torture." -- Alfred W. McCoy, author "A Question of Torture: CIA Interrogation, from the Cold War to the War on Terror"

The familiar and disturbing pictures of torture at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison raise many troubling questions: How did torture become an accepted practice at Abu Ghraib? Did U.S. government policies make it possible? How much damage has the aftermath of Abu Ghraib had on America's credibility as a defender of freedom and human rights around the world?

Acclaimed filmmaker Rory Kennedy (HBO's "Indian Point: Imagining the Unimaginable") looks beyond the headlines to investigate the psychological and political context in which torture occurred when the powerful documentary GHOSTS OF ABU GHRAIB.

Another Woman
Jerome Foulon
2002/France/106:00




Thursday, Oct 4, 9:30pm • Another Woman
Friday, Oct 5, 7:30pm • Another Woman
Saturday, Oct 6, 7:30pm • Another Woman
$5 tickets, members free

Before, Nicolas had a family, children, he was a young doctor. It was 10 years ago. Today Nicolas has become Lea, “another woman”. Transsexual. Unrecognizable.

Lea lives in Geneva where she is a pharmaceutical products representative. Sent on an assignment in Paris, she can’t resist the call of the heart, she wants to see her children again. Not daring to introduce herself directly, Lea pretends to be a musical journalist with her daughter, Emma, a young pianist. The plan works so well that Lea is introduced to the family… recomposed. Nobody recognizes Nicolas behind Lea who plays the game, painfully.

Soon, Lea, unable to bear hiding her true identity, reveals herself to the others. It’s the choc and rejection. Traumatized, Lucas, her 10 year-old son, shut himself in silence and incomprehension. Despite all these ordeals, Lea wants to continue to see her children whom she loves. Nobody will prevent her from this. In the face of her determination, she’s brought to justice. Lea comes very close to despair but pursues her fight to get her family back, a fight of love that in the end she will win.

For more information, visit Casque D'or Films

Ghosts of Cite Soleil

Directed by: Asger Leth
Running Time: 85 minutes
Rating: Unrated

Thursday, September 27 at 7:30pm
Friday, September 28 at 7:30pm
Saturday, September 29 at 7:30pm
Sunday, September 30 at 7:30pm
Tickets $5 at the door

An epic portrait of a family and a culture torn apart by poverty and violence, GHOSTS OF CITÉ SOLEIL is a powerful and unsettling documentary that takes us inside the lives of the notorious gang leaders who dominate the Haitian slum of Cite Soleil, one of the most desperate communities in the Western hemisphere.

Set to a score by Wyclef Jean, who also executive produced the film and serves as an inspiration to the young men of Haiti, the film follows two of the gang leaders, who happen to be brothers, and are also aspiring rappers. The foot soldiers of these gang leaders are known as chimeres (or “ghosts”) and it was those ghosts whom former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide is said to have employed to silence his opponents. Filmed in the months leading up to Aristide’s overthrow in 2004, the film captures the smoldering tensions between the two rival gang leaders, and their love for the same woman, set in a city the United Nations has declared the most dangerous place on Earth.