California Dreaming

California Dreaming

https://vimeo.com/254865701
Samsa Film
production
in association with
Joli Rideau Media
and
Melusine Productions
with the support of
Film Fu
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Pitch
California City, in the Mojave Desert, is the third
largest city in the state of California by area. In the
1950s, it was imagined as a new metropolis to rival Los
Angeles, though now it is a low-income community of just
14,000 souls. Through the intimate portrayal of some of
the city’s current inhabitants, California Dreaming
explores how the American Dream has evolved over the
decades since the town’s grandiose inception.
The street network in the unbuilt part of California City. Still from original
footage.
Cover picture: the structure colloquially known as the Nathan Mendelsohn Pavilion, in
Central Park, California City. Still from original footage.
Short synopsis
California Dreaming explores the unusual town of
California City, CA. It is the third- largest city by
area in the state of California, though only about 14,000
people live there today. It was grandiosely conceived in
the 1950s as a new metropolis to rival Los Angeles, a
mere two hours south, though nowadays California City is
just a small town within a much larger ghost town in the
High Mojave Desert.
The documentary follows several locals, including the
female mayor of the town; a Thai-Puerto Rican
restaurateur and drag queen; a socialist entrepreneur who
resells parts of luxury airplanes and a semi-retired car
mechanic and immigrant who worked on the first Batmobile.
Contrasting their contemporary stories with the history
of the town they call home, California Dreaming draws
parallels between the boundlessly optimistic American
Dream of the 1950s, when the city was founded, and the
much more modest dreams of those living there today.
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Long synopsis
The municipality of California City was part of an
entrepreneur’s American Dream in the buoyant 1950s, when
it was grandiosely conceived from scratch as a Utopian
metropolis intended to rival Los Angeles.
Now it survives as a small town that is California’s
331st city in terms of population but remains its third
largest by area after Los Angeles and San Francisco, with
350 miles of paved and named roads — the distance from
New York to Toronto! — all with water and electricity but
frequently only desert sand where homes should be.
Jean-Paul LeBlanc in his backyard. Still from original footage.
In this sand-swept ghost town of sorts live about 14,000
people, including Quebec-born Jean-Paul LeBlanc, 66. Like
so many before him, Jean-Paul came to the United States
searching for a better life and hoping for his own small
part of the American Dream. For him, this included
getting away from the harsh Canadian winters and working
on custom cars in Hollywood (his creations include a
Batmobile for the Adam West-starring Batman series).
Looking for a cheaper place to live, he ended up in
California City, where he is now a semi-retired
pensioner. Jean-Paul gives back to the community through
organizing events such as the annual Holiday Village,
which brings the town together before Christmas. But he’s
also battling a second bout of cancer and dealing with an
uncertain future as a foreigner in what has now become
Trump’s United States of America (LeBlanc was already
arrested and jailed once for allegedly being in the U.S.
illegally during the Obama years).
California Dreaming chronicles Jean-Paul’s professional
and private struggles and his dreams and frequent reality
checks.
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His story is accompanied by a handful of supporting
characters that all evoke their dreams and daily
challenges in the small conservative town. They include
Vic Carmona, a Thai-Puerto Rican who was fired from the
Navy for being gay and who struggles to operate a Thai
restaurant where he also performs as a drag queen and who
hopes to be elected to City Council;
Vic Carmona promoting his run for City Council. Still from original footage.
Norm Hill, a left-wing entrepreneur whose business in
aircraft parts is one of California City’s economical
success stories;
Norm Hill among his planes at his facility, Still from original footage.
the very active Mayor, Jennifer Wood, who hopes
California’s new laws on marijuana cultivation and sales
might bring salvation for her struggling community; and
the African-American Carolinda Batiste, who, together
with her husband Ron Fleming, coach of the High School
basketball team, is very involved in the community as a
member of the Parks Commission, the president of the
Community Club and the co-organizer of the annual
Renaissance Fair.
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Mayor Jennifer Wood in the City Council room. Still from original footage.
Though focusing on a few individuals in one community,
California Dreamin’ also more generally explores how the
concept of the American Dream has been severely
downscaled in just a few decades, from the grandiose
visions and boundless optimism of the 1950s to the
America of today, where dreaming has become more about
eliminating worries, with citizens hoping they’ll be able
to pay the rent and hospital bills at the end of the
month while the city prays marijuana will bring jobs,
prosperity and a steady tax income.
Even so, that won’t stop California City’s residents from
dreaming…