BELOW SEA LEVEL

Italy/US, 2008, 106 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Gianfranco Rosi.

If ever one wanted to see an alternate view of the United States, this is the film.

The title refers to the California Desert near the Mexican border which is below sea level. It is an empty and dry space, a haven for derelict cars and other vehicles. However, it has become a haven for dropouts from society, those who are, according to one of the characters, residentially challenged. There is an explanation by Mike Bright about how he was moved on all the time because of legislation about sleeping in parks, not having proper addresses. However, a group of dropout Baby Boomers, ex-hippies are now able to live there in peace. However, it is important to note that the mental stability of most of the characters is not very strong at all.

An Italian documentary group interviewed a number of the residents of this area. They are a motley group but make for interesting viewing and interesting listening. They are not completely cut off even though there is no electricity and a water dealer travels around to supply water. However, they are able to go into the nearby towns for shopping and also keep contact through radio.

The film-makers have a great sympathy for their interviewees. However, they do not minimise the strange characteristics, the bizarre personalities, the interactions between the people, some of them quite intimate with the touch of the intrusive. There is the water man himself who plays golf while doing deliveries. There is Mike Bright who is concerned about bugs and about the environment. There is Kenny who has moved around a great deal, but lives in a bus, wants intellectual conversation and takes up with the doctor. The doctor herself has opted out of life, has a failed marriage and reveals that someone was trying to kill her and her son took the bullet for her. There is also another woman, called Bulletproof, who was shot in the face but survived. The oddest of all characters is Mad Wayne, whose eyes pop, who is uninhibited in his language, takes up sexually with Bulletproof, has some harsh things to say about God and religion. Finally there is a sympathetic transsexual who has a small beauty parlour and tends to the hair and nails of the people living in the caravans and cars. She talks about her past, shows photos of herself in high school, then in the navy and speaks about the experience of Vietnam and the blaming by the American public of the soldiers when they came back. She also has a very romantic idea of marriage and waiting on her husband – despite having had six marriages.

Here is a cross-section of dropouts, American dropouts, talking the language of America but on the periphery.

1.The impact of the film, the information about the setting, the desert, the Mexican border? No regulations or legislation?

2.The visuals of the desert, the buses and cars, the derelict cars? The musical score?

3.The title, the factual situation? The implications of these characters dropping out of ordinary radar?

4.Life in this community, people keeping to themselves, their interactions? Going into town? Listening to the radio? Living their own lives?

5.- The water man, conversation, playing golf, the deliveries?
- Mike Bright, his background, explanation of the situation, the
mosquitos and bugs, his reflection on his children? Alcoholism?
- Kenny, in the bus, moving around, wanting company and
intellectual conversation, with the doctor, moving further into the
desert, her blunt talking, his response?
- The doctor, her opting out of life, her marriage break-up, losing
custody of her child, the shooting, the death of her son, her blunt
talking to Kenny? Her acupuncture treatment of the dog?

6.Bulletproof, the liaison with Mad Wayne, her telling the story about the bullet in her face?

7.Mad Wayne, his eyes, appearance, talk, language, blunt, sexuality, religion and God?

8.The transsexual, the background, the photos, serving in the navy, Vietnam, the return? Sexual issues? Marriages? Son? The beauty treatment? Conversation? The trying out of the various wigs?

9.The overall effect of an immersion in this kind of situation and with these people? Human empathy?