California Dreaming

At 203.5 square miles, California City is the third largest city in the state of California in terms of area. Founded in 1958 by sociologist/real estate developer, Nat Mendelsohn, it was supposed to become the next big metropolis. The land is located in the Mojave Desert, 108 miles north of Los Angeles, a place Mendelsohn hoped his city would one day rival. But reality has a way of impacting dreams. Today it sits severely underdeveloped, looking like a ghost town with a population of just 14,000. While that’s five times what it was in 1984, it’s still a tiny amount of people in such a huge space. Filmmaker Fabrizio Maltese documents life in this nearly empty, unfinished wasteland in his fascinating sociological documentary, California Dreaming. The film follows numerous California City citizens, including a hopeful businessman who started a company there, an embattled mayor, a vibrant drag queen restaurant owner/political candidate, and several others whose lives have been forever changed by the peculiar place they call home. Maltese’s beautifully shot film is an exploration of the American dream and its unfulfilled promises. (Cleveland International Film Festival)