Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea recounts the twisted tale of the accidental forming of a large body of salt water in the southern California dessert. The film’s primary focus is on the subsequent and occasionally stumblebum efforts to capitalize on this phenomenon.

By the 1950s the lake had become the working-class counterpart of Palm Springs, home to fishing, waterskiing, and bird-watching. Seizing on the potential for resorts and retirement communities, developers and speculators began to build hotels and an infrastructure for a large community. Celebrities came — Frank Sinatra, Sonny Bono, the Beach Boys, and the Marx Bros. But providence, which brought this miracle, just as unexpectedly revisited the sea, this time with less favorable results.

In a series of calamities from hurricanes to real estate miscalculations, the visions for a Mecca in the dessert evaporated as though they were mirages. First the lake overflowed due to freak rain storms, swamping homes and hope. Then it receded, considerably reducing the original shoreline and leaving a concentric border of detritus and dissolution. The residual stew, in the minds of some, includes the remaining inhabitants, a curious blend of those who couldn’t or wouldn’t leave, more recently joined by families fleeing the inner city.

Although most of the people we meet in Plagues and Pleasures would be judged to have their full wits about them (there are exceptions), the backdrop of decay against which they are framed prejudices their portrayals. This all makes for a fun, sad, and intoxicating offering.

Playing at the Grand Illusion May 18-24.

Word Wars: Tiles and Tribulations on the Scrabble Game Circuit (2003);

Directed by Julian Petrillo

“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me.” This proverbial admonishment against verbal abuse, while well intended, falls short in accuracy. Words can hurt. In fact, words can be addictive to the point that people — bright, intelligent men and women, -— forgo employment, dating, and standard social protocol to memorize every two- to eight-letter word in American English.

In Word Wars, an exciting voyeuristic journey into the eclectic world of the country’s top scrabble players, we meet what might be called the “professionals,” a word that belies the nominal prize money at stake. These devotees have taken a family board game and developed sophisticated strategies, applying such everyday words as A-E (one), E-A-U (transparent liquid), A-S-P-H-Y-X-Y (plural of asphyxia), and B-E-Z-I-Q-U-E (a card game).

The real fun in Word Wars is in observing the lives of these perennially penniless and colorful competitors, ranging from the Black and somewhat militant Marlon Hill to Joel Sherman, constantly beset by gastrointestinal issues, to Joe Edley, who actually has a family and a job. Unlike the recent crossword documentary Wordplay, which focused mostly on crossword competitions, Word Wars looks at lives gone slightly dysfunctional due to an obsession that can only be indulged by minds obviously capable of more productive activity.

Enhanced by some deft cinema verité, this is a film you may want to buy and keep around the I-S-B-A (the hut).