Yesterday, I left work early to get some rest and recover from the cold that had caught me on Wednesday. I managed to hang my jacket on the right hook, dump my backpack in its assigned spot (behind the couch), and deposit my wallet and keys in their proper places on the counter, before teetering to the couch and conking out for three hours straight.

When I awoke, I checked the mail and found two Netflix DVDs waiting for me. I joyously opened the red envelopes to see what movies I had received. Both were from past Cinequest film festivals (I had tried to time my queue correctly, but I was off by a week).

One was a Norwegian comedy-drama called Chlorox, Ammonia and Coffee (2005). This one I set aside because I wanted to be awake when I watched it.

The other was Amargosa (2001), a documentary by Todd Robinson, who wrote White Squall. This disc I slid into the DVD player. The plan was to watch it until I fell asleep and rewind it to the point where I dozed off when I woke up. (I am a notorious documentary-dozer. Usually, the more interesting the subject, the faster I fall asleep.)

Within two minutes, I was down. I blame Mary McDonnell's soothing narrating voice and the sweeping camera shots of the desert for my instant slumber. An hour or so later, I scanned to the beginning of the film and watched it all the way through.

The documentary is about Marta Becket, a dancer from New York City, who performed at Radio City Music Hall and on Broadway before creating her own show and taking it on the road. That fateful tour would lead her to discovering an abandoned theater in Death Valley Junction, once a mining camp, but only a ghost town in 1967. After a year of repairs and renovations, she opened the newly renamed Amargosa Opera House and gave her first performance. She's been dancing there ever since.

While Becket comes across as an eccentric woman, Robinson shows her in a sympathetic light, allowing the audience to see the hard-working, creative, and likable spirit underneath. It's difficult not to be inspired by her story. Here's a woman who has found her place in the world, in the middle of the desert, and cultivated it to fulfill her dreams. Hers is a story about defying convention, taking risks, and giving oneself completely to one's art, regardless of the consequences.

After the movie was done, I hopped online and happily discovered that Becket is not only alive (she was in her mid-seventies when it was filmed), but she is still dancing. I think it would be fun (and quite enriching) to see her perform live. It would also be one more reason to visit Death Valley.