film synopsis
The Coachella Valley is far more than just the location of Palm Springs, the Salton Sea, the eponymous music festival and an agricultural bounty. It is also a region of enormous disparities: a racetrack built as a place for rich gearheads to play with their toys abuts a modest public school educating the children of farmers and servants, and northern snowbirds vacation in gated communities and play golf as unhoused migrants in down-at-the-heels unincorporated towns sleep in their sweltering trucks. This vivid documentary casts a wide lens on this diverse population and its jarring contrasts, touching not just on differences of wealth and class but also on the threat of environmental disaster and the precarious position of undocumented workers. Split along the lines of the four seasons to underline the migratory nature of Coachella residents on both ends of the economic spectrum, Invisible Valley is an astonishing portrait of the fascinating place Palm Springs calls home.