Slammunity - Slab City Short Documentary

since you live in the community nearest to slab city we were just wondering could you tell us what your perspective is on slab city like what do you know about it depends if there are there are knowing drugs they the life is good and most of the people in there is is really good they don't bother too much and they do their business and they come here a few times and they are good people and then we don't have any problem with them the way they want to live is that it's the only the life they're gonna get [Music] [Music] instead of the television all about [Music] hello [Music] time [Music] well i'm looking at it but where's the hole there's the hole in the camera [ __ ] so i tried to celebrate it and then i [ __ ] up and well evidently i had some uh i'm toby and i've been out in the slabs for about three months now hi i'm peter pasalakwa and this is pepito my dog and uh how long have you been living out here oh two two and a half years i'm mama d and i've been out here approximately five years all right my name is kyle goldsmith uh i've not been in slab cities long i've been here for about six weeks so i'm at seven oh i was told to look for a larp i'm like well nice to meet y'all my name's larp the reason i came out to the slabs is to um follow my career as an artist and to get famous i get a lot more exposure out here in slab city than i ever did in portland oregon in portland i'm just another face in saturday market but out here oh i'm a god i did the gem show and then i used the money that i made to help uh register uh like an rv to go to the the the rainbow gathering we showed up there the day before valentine's day celebrated valentine's day and then they said all right everybody get the [ __ ] out and it's like oh [ __ ] where do i go and the bus that i had a ride with we either had the option of going to either a hopi indian reservation to help them out or go to slab city and there was already like a convoy of a lot of other hippies going to the indian rest so we didn't want to like ah we don't want to be a whole bunch of drunk and [ __ ] shows [ __ ] disrespecting sacred space so lo and behold we freaking pulled the bus up it's been so much fun living here oh my god i just i can't even believe two years has gone by it's been so quick and just all it's like an amazing chain of events is happening to me just a great thing after great thing after great thing just keeps on happening i love it out here to the uninitiated slab city can seem like something out of a movie an anarchist's paradise a place to get away from the woes and struggles of regular societal living the last free place as many have called it over the years the rich history of this small community begins all the way back in the 1940s during world war ii when this small patch of desert was known as camp dunlap a marine base used to train soldiers the base was decommissioned soon after the war ended and by the 1960s the land went back to the state of california about nine miles away from the salton sea slab city has attracted people from around the world for its free nature and open arm approach to alternative lifestyles however the freedom attributed to the slabs can be miscommunicated to those unfamiliar with the community i don't know if i would ever be able to find a place like this that you could live as free as you do here without like people kicking you out you know i mean i'm just not sure where else in the world this exists yeah the whole free to be you and everything it's like it is not lawless wait we have police here just like a police station right town but from a lawless perspective i think it's just that there's no regulations you get away with like living like this and nobody's going to come and go you can't live like that where if you tried to do this in a town somewhere they would shut you down feed them out here yeah and but you're not free from consequence no know they say the last free play stop you know in america it's free to rent not freedom to act like an [ __ ] oh there's so much freedom out here for example look what i'm wearing today if i lived in the suburbs i couldn't wear a belly dancer dress and my band leader jacket my tassels i could wear this but the balance would be so i would be so far out of balance with everybody else that it almost wouldn't be acceptable you know they might accept it but it would be strange and foreign to them the freedom in slab city you can wear whatever you want to wear here's the other thing in the suburbs i've always smoked pot but if you have a job you kind of have to conceal that like i'm getting stoned at seven in the morning and [ __ ] you know and then smoking another bowl right before i go in at work or whatever and that could kind of be frowned upon in the suburbs but out here in slab city you have the freedom to smoke weed as much as you want you're free to be you but i'm also free to check you if you being you is not copycat like oh yeah the last free place in the world [ __ ] yeah we might not pay rent but stay out in the sun in 120 degrees for over a week we do pay a price it's just not money it's sweat and blood and [ __ ] tears you must understand in slab city people are like vampires they will not come into your camp unless you invite them in the first time since i don't do meth i don't kind of co-mingle with those circles in slab city whatever drug you do you kind of find that circle of people and that's who you hang out with i'm an artist and a pot smoker i find my ilk to hang out with given that math doesn't really affect me because i don't hang around with people who do meth but it's kind of accepted in the society here's the thing is we live in a town where everybody has a purpose even though they're high on math doesn't mean they're not good at digging you a ditch or some [ __ ] like that everybody out here has a purpose you know yeah you don't know your neighbors out in babylon in san diego i've lived there nine years i don't know my neighbors my neighbors don't know me and i can't stand being there the suburbs was like a fortress people would close their blinds lock their door behind them not answer their door you know now they have security cameras on the door yeah in slab city i don't have any gates i don't have anything that really locks i'm all the way over there by east jesus and i know good friends of mine that live at the library that's about almost like a mile walk that i will walk to meet my friends i bet you don't know the [ __ ] person who lives four doors down from you and you're blocked do you i don't know the person that lives right next to me honestly as i'm saying that's why i don't want to call this place slap city i want to call it because we're a [ __ ] community there there are people that come that fit in just fine and then there's others that come here to you know they they hear about slab city and they want to come watch the zoos at the animals at the zoo and you know they can get obnoxious and they shut our water off the city took the water away from slab city and so people are struggling so hard out here and people are dying you know we lost a lot of people last year they heat exhaustion and dehydration there's politicians in washington that need to come out here at slab city if not to speak to me literally look and what inflation does to people in this country it would take millions upon millions to clean up slab city nobody wants that responsibility the government doesn't even want the responsibility of it it's all neglected land the people living out in the slabs come here for a myriad of reasons whether it be artistic freedom a free place to camp or somewhere to do drugs however there are still struggles that come with the lifestyle the people out here have chosen while some of the problems the community faces are out of their control it is also clear that there is a lot to be said about the safety of the people who live in slab city with no rules come situations you wouldn't find anywhere else here comes dan right at the front door superman kicked him the [ __ ] out and then he went to go around the back and i thought he was trying to go around the back to light it on fire i'm like hey you might want to grab she is broken she tried to put some in her mouth just yeah this is baba oh oh i know what happened the little uh a little insert tabby no no i know it's pretty but don't oh she got something but no yeah and then uh well no it's uh it's the little nipple things that's probably why she's handing it to me because it's not working correctly but no yeah so i was like hey you want to light something on fire how about me and i took lighter to my pants thinking i was wearing pants but i was actually wearing like a synthetic [ __ ] skirt and like where's the other one well like i said there was i had a burn here about that while spending time in the slabs and getting to know the folks who have come to call it their home we learned a lot about their communal understanding of how to run a community a phrase we heard multiple times throughout our time there was places that were referred to as babylon although no one came to explain what that meant until right before we left babylon is the idea of society the towns cities and rest of the world outside of the slabs this community on the outskirts of babylon has some of the most tight-knit and kindest people i've ever met which might just be the default when you spend your time living in a desert in triple digit temperatures while there are concerning elements and the clear fact that this lifestyle isn't for everyone for the people that call slab city their home it couldn't be better it isn't the place that matters it's the people and the people are what make it a slim unity i have a place in san diego and i pay the bills there and everything but still prefer to be here it's the people the people keep bringing us back and stuff it's the community i said if somebody's like oh larp just whipped someone's ass last night they're like well who did they rape right because i i don't get violent but i will defend and protect but you don't [ __ ] with me i mean you can [ __ ] with me all you want you don't [ __ ] with mine or don't [ __ ] with my morals here's the thing in slab city when you are called to slab city it has such a strong gravitational pull that there's nothing you can do to escape it's it's once sab city summons you you have to come here uh everybody everybody here has had the same experience at the same time when slab city is done with you you have to go so i'll be here until slab city has decided that i've done my work and it's time for me to go like there's no other place in the world where you think like if you want to help people this is the place to go up here what it is there's a lot of people that when they [ __ ] up and they feel ashamed so then they come out here they feel like this is the only place they can be and they said i like helping people if i had a message for our society today sit down long enough to realize that love is an action word and it may cause you to sacrifice [Music] you

Channel: Logan Boles Films

Views: 46,542

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Id: 2lx2BwdtJxw

Length: 15min 5sec (905 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 02 2021