Searching round online for any Bob Dylan news,I was surprise to recently to discover that Dylan had contributed 2 songs for a low budget documentary.With having a family friend about to pay a visit during the run up to Christmas,I was happy to see that the documentary had been brought out on DVD,which would allow everyone to pay a quick visit to Bombay Beach.
The outline of the film:
Film maker Alma Har'el goes to a poor, census-designated-place in Imperial County,California called Bombay Beach,that has a population of just under 300 people.Deciding to focus on three distinct residence of Bombay:the first one being an old man called Red,who despite recently suffering from ill health,continues to travel to a drug store based out of Bombay Beach,so that he can buy cigarette's which he can sell at a few pence more than he paid for them,at the trailer park that he lives in.
The second person who Alma looks at is a young man called CeeJay Thompson,who after being sent to Bombay Beach by a relative who was fearing that he may get involved in gangs,is shocked to find paradise at Bombay,where along with becoming the star player in the high school's football team,Thompson also begins to fall in love with one of the schools cheerleader's.
For the third person,Har'el focuses on the family of 7 year old Benny Parrish,who along with having bright dreams of being a firemen in the future,is also having to make long journeys out with his parents to medical facility,due to suffering from a bi-polar disorder.
View on the film:
Working closely with dance and stage choreography Paula Present,director Alma Har'el intercepts the three threads of the movie with surreal dance and stage pieces,that go from Ceejay and his girlfriend having a dance off,to the film jumping 20 years to show Benny as a firemen.Whilst this does make the documentary more openly "staged" than most,Har'el cleverly uses " the fantasy severance's" to build up a strong,dusty,ambient wasteland mood that erupts at the precise moment Alma unleashes any of the two (written just for this movie) smooth Dylan tracks on the soundtrack.
Basting the film in Bombay Beach,Alma opens the movie with archival promotional Video footage from the building of Bombay Beach,where people were being told to buy property there so that they could have a piece of "the American dream".Jumping to the modern day,run day wasteland of the place,Har'el smartly shows,that no matter how much the American dream is pushed to the edge of the cliff,there are still people who are trying to find their part of the dream,in the suburb of Bombay.
The outline of the film:
Film maker Alma Har'el goes to a poor, census-designated-place in Imperial County,California called Bombay Beach,that has a population of just under 300 people.Deciding to focus on three distinct residence of Bombay:the first one being an old man called Red,who despite recently suffering from ill health,continues to travel to a drug store based out of Bombay Beach,so that he can buy cigarette's which he can sell at a few pence more than he paid for them,at the trailer park that he lives in.
The second person who Alma looks at is a young man called CeeJay Thompson,who after being sent to Bombay Beach by a relative who was fearing that he may get involved in gangs,is shocked to find paradise at Bombay,where along with becoming the star player in the high school's football team,Thompson also begins to fall in love with one of the schools cheerleader's.
For the third person,Har'el focuses on the family of 7 year old Benny Parrish,who along with having bright dreams of being a firemen in the future,is also having to make long journeys out with his parents to medical facility,due to suffering from a bi-polar disorder.
View on the film:
Working closely with dance and stage choreography Paula Present,director Alma Har'el intercepts the three threads of the movie with surreal dance and stage pieces,that go from Ceejay and his girlfriend having a dance off,to the film jumping 20 years to show Benny as a firemen.Whilst this does make the documentary more openly "staged" than most,Har'el cleverly uses " the fantasy severance's" to build up a strong,dusty,ambient wasteland mood that erupts at the precise moment Alma unleashes any of the two (written just for this movie) smooth Dylan tracks on the soundtrack.
Basting the film in Bombay Beach,Alma opens the movie with archival promotional Video footage from the building of Bombay Beach,where people were being told to buy property there so that they could have a piece of "the American dream".Jumping to the modern day,run day wasteland of the place,Har'el smartly shows,that no matter how much the American dream is pushed to the edge of the cliff,there are still people who are trying to find their part of the dream,in the suburb of Bombay.