Growing up in Southern California, the Salton Sea is, personally, an endless source of fascination—an over-the-top cinematic narrative of man’s hubris and fall, that, tragically, is not constrained to the screen but stained upon the Earth—made real and free to visit. Media raconteur Ransom Riggs’ brief 6 minute short film documentary about the woebegone desert sea nicely straddles the line between being dryly informative and spookily subjective.

Ransom Riggs, besides already having a mega-star name, is an interesting up-and-coming creative. He just released a teen novel, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, that has been very well received; it was listed as an Amazon “Best Book” for June, and 20th Century Fox swooped in quickly to secure the film rights before it even hit shelves. A USC film graduate, Riggs has also made a few short films, and commerically, has worked in the interesting, and as of yet under-developed arena of book-trailers. Oh he is a fine photographer too. Learn more about Rigg’s varied work at his website.