The Montreal Documentary Film Festival (RIDM) is proud to announce Bombay Beach as the opening film of their new monthly series Docville. The American-Israeli filmmaker Alma Har'el's film will be shown THURSDAY JANUARY 26 AT 7 PM AT THE EXCENTRIS CINEMA. The screening will be followed by a conversation via skype with the filmmaker.

Bombay Beach is at the crossroads of documentary, fiction, music video and fever dreams. On the shores of the Salton Sea – an artificial saltwater lake in the middle of the Colorado desert – a community of outcasts has taken up residence in the decrepit resort of Bombay Beach, now a ghost town. Video artist and photographer Alma Har’el grasped the immense cinematic potential of this post-apocalyptic landscape, a visual metaphor for an American Dream that’s running on fumes. She spent several months filming a small group of residents: Benny, a tremendously imaginative little boy pumped full of Ritalin and lithium; CeeJay, a romantic young football player fleeing the gang violence of Los Angeles; and Red, a reclusive octogenarian living on cigarettes, whisky and the occasional dance step. Har’el celebrates the creativity of her endearingly eccentric subjects by seasoning her documentary observations with improvised scenes, choreography and surrealist dream sequences.

With music by the likes of Beirut and Bob Dylan, Bombay Beach is a tragic lyrical journey to the edge of America.

Bombay Beach de Alma Har’el - USA, 2011, 80 min, English version