Riverside, California. A few minutes to 7:00 a.m. Marleen and her daughter Lesley wake up in Marleen’s car, which serves as their bedroom – in fact, as their home. Lesley15, attends high school, while Marleen (40), unemployed, spends her days job hunting. Lesley brushes her teeth next to the car. A plastic bottle filled with water serves as her tap. Marleen watches the traffic nearby – rush hour. When her husband lost his job a year ago and they could no longer afford the mortgage on their new home, their marriage started to fall apart. They had to move out.
Dan Peart (32), real estate agent at Prudential in Murietta, looks thoughtful when the subject of the real estate crisis and the current situation comes up. “That was our very own Gold Rush,” Dan says. Visiting and selling repossessed homes is particularly painful for him who himself lost his home due to a personal crisis. Cindy and Jeff are deputy sheriffs with the Orange County Police Department. On their beat they have to evict people and patrol the vacant houses in their precinct on a daily basis.
WELCOME TO WASTELAND is an episodic documentary that observes its protagonists in an essayistic manner, thus capturing a nation’s state of mind. The film does not explain how this situation could have developed. Instead, it takes a direct look at the current situation and offers an appraisal based on very immediate portrayals of the characters involved. The film places us directly in the setting.
Nobody in California expected this development. The shock over the sudden fall into a bottomless abyss is deep seated and noticeable everywhere. The vacant houses and half-finished homes alarmingly reflect people’s inner state. The contrast between what once was, what was desired, and what now IS could not be greater. An apocalyptic atmosphere prevails both inside and outside. The awareness that the reputed good times are over – for a long time – is taking hold.