Director's Statement: Emily Sandifer, "Salton"
I first drove out to the Salton Sea area in 2008 and quickly became fascinated... or obsessed, actually... with the history, the people, and the future of the sea. I found a beauty and quiet romance in the desolation there, and although I took hundreds of photos, I wanted to document it further. So, I decided to write a feature script. But I got impatient. Each time I drove to Salton, more of what drew me there was being either destroyed or cleaned up. This led to producing a short film first. "Salton" explores the mystery of the sea, the history, and the legends. I read so many articles about myths and stories, folk-lore even. I wanted to incorporate that into a love story because I'm a hopeless romantic. There's so much talk about the toxicity of Salton's water. It got me thinking: what if it was just the opposite? Other things got me thinking: there's thermal activity in the area, I found a "Fountain of Youth Spa" with hot springs, and there seems to be a strange "pull" for many visitors who keep getting drawn back to Salton year after year. And then you have the current residents. At first glance, you'd ask yourself, "Why would anyone still live out here after everything has dried up and withered away?" But yet, as soon as you leave, you find yourself wanting to go back: to explore just one more area or find just one more long abandoned treasure. All this, combined with other stories I read about, were inspiration for "Salton." Most importantly: how it effects everyone who goes there, in one way or the other. Amongst all the muck and dead fish, there is something there that no one can deny is eerily beautiful, yet hauntingly sad. I wanted people to see the Salton that I and many others see. It's much more than a stinky, deserted area. It's a feeling; there's a energy at the sea, maybe residual from the massive tourist activity from its hey-day. The challenge was to translate that into a film that was not loaded down with the history or politics you see in other films about Salton. I wanted to showcase the area to attract people to visit it before everything that makes it unique is gone. Salton is threatened constantly by state park and museum shutdowns due to money limitations, demolitions and clean-ups (which technically could be a good thing to build the area up again, but nothing is replacing the history that is being demolished, it's only being used for dirt bikes and recreational vehicles), druggies and squatters in some areas, and the sea's condition itself which is a loaded discussion altogether. I approached "Salton" as such: a complex area characterized by folk-lore, misconceptions, obsession, failure, oddities, history, and yet potential. What came of this approach was a film primarily about a place of quiet isolation where anyone who didn't want to be found could easily become lost forever.