Below Sea Level
Gianfranco Rosi • 1h 53m
Gianfranco Rosi • Italy • 2008 • A portrait of California flatland squatters
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Roughly 200 miles southeast of Los Angeles, in the wild desert of Southern California, is an ad hoc town without electricity or running water. Some denizens are just passing through, others are here to stay. While disparate circumstances have brought them here, all have turned their backs on society, wishing only to be left alone.
Filmed over the course of five years, Below Sea Level offers a glimpse inside a ragtag colony of flatland squatters. Gianfranco Rosi's second documentary premiered at IDFA; Cinéma du Réel, where it won Best Film; and Venice , where it won Best Documentary in Orizzonti.
Up Next in Gianfranco Rosi
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Boatman
Gianfranco Rosi • Italy • 1993
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Fire at Sea
Gianfranco Rosi • 2016 • Italy
A small fishing town emerges as the nexus of the refugee crisis.
Halfway between Sicily and the coast of Tunisia lies a tiny island with a dwindling full-time population of several...
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Sacro GRA
Gianfranco Rosi • 2013 • Italy
A cartography of Rome's ring road and its eccentric inhabitants.
The Grande Raccordo Anulare is a 68-kilometer highway girdling the metropolis of Rome. Rarely given a passing glimps...
