Erin Nordstrom

This is a documentary about Morongo Valley, and the people Novemba met there.

Leaving LA in a rented car loaded with their camera gear, Novemba headed for the desert. They’d just spent a good few months pitching on commercials, developing ideas and plotting the next 'big thing'. They’d pounded away at their laptops long into the night, fueled by a heady mix of angst and ambition, but the results were nothing tangible, a kind of anti-matter, a vacuum of creativity and feeling.

This trip was an antidote to all of that. They had a burning desire to just get out there and film. They craved adventure, the thrill of the unknown, ready to let their guts, instinct and curiosity lead them. What could possibly go wrong?

So they hit the road. After a couple of hours, not long past Palm Springs, they arrived at a small town carved into a narrow valley in the high desert. They pulled into the gas station to grab a cool drink. Outside they met a guy playing hacky sack with mesmerising skill and intensity. He introduced himself to them as J3, and said he’d glimpsed the fifth dimension. It was time to start filming.

As the sun began to set across the valley that day, they decided that they might as well stick around Morongo Valley, population 3,552. There was just something about it. This film is a depiction of the next 4 days spent in the town.