Below Sea Level

The opening scroll states "at an abandoned naval base and still active bombing range..." both of these statements are incorrect. The location filmed is referred to as Slab City or "The Slabs" and the land is part of an abandoned US Marine Corps base, Camp Dunlap, and is NOT an active bombing range. To the North and East is the USMC Chocolate Mountain Aerial Gunnery Range but the Slabs is not within the range.

The Slabs used to be a haven for the displaced... a dysfunctional community that looked after it's own. Now it's a tourist attraction for the yuppy millennials and the privileged, entitled "wannabes". The Slabs has turned into a ghetto Burning Man... a human "zoo" for people to gawk at those less fortunate.

The film provides an unfiltered, nonjudgemental look at these people before the tourists began flocking in. All of the people filmed have either passed away or moved on. The Slabs is no longer a safe place for these troubled people... unfortunately due to films just like this one.

Enjoy a Slab City that no longer exists.

This was a good documentary with a poor Title. Better Titles might have been "Life Derailed" or "No Way Out".

It is easy for viewers to fault the residents of Slab City for the decisions they made that brought them there or the lives of squalor they lead. But at the end of the day, without a viable community or strong social network, it does not take many bad decisions or a very long run of bad luck to turn the average person's life completely upside down.

The Documentary features a number of people who might have been exactly like former neighbors or classmates. Through bad decisions and / or luck they are now spending the remainder of their days on the edge of civilization and survival. There is no happy ending, no redemption, or light at the end of the tunnel, only existence.

Perhaps the most accurate Title of this Documentary should have been "But For The Grace of God Go I"

Worth Watching!

The more you get to know the characters in this film, the more engaging it becomes; the paradox is that they seem to want to escape most of humanity, as a result of tragedy or trauma, but not Rosi's camera; and they form some sort of community in spite of everything. If you like this kind of thing, check out 'Bombay Beach', a visually striking portrait of people living by the nearby Saltoun Sea.