Outside of Time and Space in Bombay Beach

Thinking of a series of dreams
Where the time and the tempo drag,
And there's no exit in any direction
'Cept the one that you can't see with your eyes.
Wasn't making any great connections,
Wasn't falling for any intricate schemes.
Nothing that would pass inspection,
Just thinking of a series of dreams.
--Bob Dylan "Series of Dreams"

What defines a well-lived life? What makes a man rich? Or happy? Some version of these questions lies at the root of most cinematic endeavors, and Bombay Beach is no exception. The film takes place in an insular, dying, desert seascape outside of time, populated by atypical individuals who seem like they were plucked from the negatives of Diane Arbus and Walker Evans. The lives of this band of eccentrics have been written off by society as bleak and hopeless, but this very isolation and abandonment has cultivated a different, no less vibrant and loving community.

In the neighborhoods in and around Bombay Beach there is no Obama or Romney or Bachmann talk. There is no anxiety about “the future of things”. There is no media or marketing or malls.There is no constantly updating Facebook stream, or Linkedin profile, or rss feed. There is a dying sea and the sun and long stretches of road and sand. There are tin roofs and trailers. There is garbage and wire and flea-bitten mutts that snuggle with empty beer cans and restless children. But through the eyes of director Alma Har’el’s camera, Bombay Beach also contains magic and innocence and whimsy. There is deeply felt emotion and friendship. There are games of pretend and large group potlucks. Here, in this surreal place where time does not rush ceaselessly into the future, a moment is felt for its full weight. It's not a means to an end but is the end itself. While the lives of these economically marginalized folks are captured for what they are, Har’el finds a romantic spirit embedded. The film’s folksy and dreamy score complement a shooting style in which her subjects appear like mythical beings, entering shots larger than life, captured in the soft light of the magic hour, or up so close that every wrinkle and freckle is heavy with reverence.

And then there is the dancing. The choreographed moments dispersed throughout the film bring the already alien landscape of the Salton Sea further out of time, essentially constructing an alternate post-apocalyptic version of America that is breathtaking in its strangeness. We see the shadow of a large man and wife spin against the siding of house, and a group of children clasp hands in a choreographed dance of the game red rover. One of my favorite moments is a masked dance between two teen lovers in a gazebo lit up by Christmas lights. Somehow it doesn’t feel forced. Somehow it feels honest and beautiful.

Har’el’s Bombay Beach is graceful in its decrepitude and wise in its ignorance. Whether the residents profiled feel the same warm glow and magic she projects onto them and their lives is another story. Regardless, it is a strange and intriguing landscape so distant from the America I know. One I would very much like to visit, even if only in a dream.

Bombay Beach // Trailer from Alma Har'el on Vimeo.