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"Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea" is a tale of survival.

Of the improbable sea itself, the hardened residents who live near the ecological disaster and the filmmakers who captured their stories.

The Salton Sea is an accidental body of water southeast of Palm Springs, Calif., that back in the 1950s and Õ60s lured celebrities and the well-off with its promise of yacht-club hobnobbing and watersports in the middle of the desert - a California Riviera. But it all fell apart quickly, and the area has been mocked as an environmental nightmare that attracts oddballs.

The Salton Sea became a place "where utopia and the apocalypse meet to dance a dirty tango," says the movie's narrator, John Waters, and the man who once made a movie in Smell-O-Vision should know.

Chris Metzler and Jeff Springer brought the same type of perseverance to their movie as they captured the diehards who survive the challenges of living in towns where they practically give land away and the stink of rotting fish is a fact of life. The film screens at the Guild Cinema in Nob Hill on June 14 and 15.

Metzler said he and Springer began the project in 2000 and didn't finish shooting until early 2005. They found a compelling cast of characters with "quirky offbeat stories," Metzler said in a phone interview.

"Jeff and I are just curious people, I guess," he said. "And one of the things about documentary filmmaking is learning about the way some people live."

The Salton Sea area attracts unique characters who want to do their own thing and not be bothered. We meet:

• Hunky Daddy, a self-proclaimed hero of the 1956 Hungarian resistance who comes across as a beer-swilling pervert who probably harbors secrets we don't want to know about. His thick accent and penchant for gibberish require subtitles.

• Donald Scheidler, a nudist who stands along the side of the road and welcomes visitors with a message of love and peace.

• Petre Melvin, a chain-smoking woman who had "a little cancer problem" and insists that the salty air and dead fish have salutary qualities.

• The Job-like Leonard Knight, who has spent the past few decades erecting Salvation Mountain, an offering to God. "He's religious," another resident points out, "but he doesn't push it on you."

• Real estate mogul Manny Diaz, whose demeanor is unflagging in the face of a near-impossible task.

• Sonny Bono - yes, Cher's other half, who as a congressman in the late Õ90s brought attention and funding to the Salton Sea. But then, in a typically unfortunate development, as one resident points out, "He went skiing."

The filmmakers manage to bring humanity to this collection of characters while letting them fly their freak flags proudly.

"I really respect that people are willing to live their lives differently than most people would choose," Metzler said.

A lot of folks are pretty much trapped in those towns, because their homes have no value and they can't afford to exchange them for one in another town. One resident admits that he and many of his neighbors are basically there to die. Another in Bombay Beach points matter-of-factly to a shell of an old tavern and deadpans, "That used to be The Luck of the Irish."

"You kind of accept your fate and circumstances, and live life as best you can," Metzler explained.

The Salton Sea was formed by accident 100 years ago - "an engineering screw-up," Waters intones - created from agricultural runoff. By 1951, fish from Mexico were introduced, and by the Õ60s, the Marx Brothers, the Beach Boys and Sonny Bono were hanging out at the yacht club, and promotional films were touting the "miracle in the desert."

But it never took off. In 1994, fish started dying off by the millions in the water that is far saltier than the ocean's. Two years later, avian botulism was killing 100 pelicans a day.

Narrator Waters calls one community "a trailer park on the edge of an ecological time bomb."

"Plagues and Pleasures" features a wealth of archival footage from promotional films, made in the heyday when developers and investors were convinced that the area was going to be the next Palm Springs. That rare film footage came from residents' attics and basements, from people's personal collections, Metzler said.

An earlier version of the documentary played at the Santa Fe Film Festival in December 2005. Since then, Waters' narration was added, and the score was completed by the Arizona desert-noir band Friends of Dean Martinez.

Metzler said he originally found the band's music by searching through a record bin.

"It really fit well, that desert lounge music with kind of an apocalyptic twist," Metzler said.

As for Waters, he was the filmmakers' dream narrator, because of his dry wit and his familiarity with people on the fringes of society. By chance, Metzler said, they met a woman at a film festival in Texas who knew Waters. She asked for a copy of the film for him.

"A few weeks later he called and said, `I love your film, and I would love to narrate it. But you have to come to Baltimore to do it,' " Metzler recalled.

He said Waters was "very, very generous" for working within the confines of the film's paltry $25,000 budget. What was achieved with those limited funds speaks to the film's charming mix of thorough research and serendipity.

"It's not the ideal way to make a film," Metzler said. "But in the end it's like any other of those small, entrepreneurial endeavors. If you're willing to sacrifice your time, and if people see that you've done that, then they'll come on board and help you out for those same reasons."

Documentaries have changed in recent years, partly because the equipment has gotten more affordable. But also, Metzler said, people often thought documentary films had to be issue-driven, bordering on propaganda.

Metzler said he and Springer are developing films about evangelical backpacking Christians, taxidermists and the rock band Fishbone.

The do-it-yourself aspect, and the ability to multitask among subject matters, allows filmmakers to take their time and let stories play out over months and years, Metzler said.

"Making documentaries really does test how long you're willing to wait to let real life happen," he said. ". . . Now I can see that it's best to juggle projects and wait for a story to unfold."