Calling All Earthlings

This layered and oddball documentary mainly centers on George Van Tassel. He was a former aeronautical engineer, who devoted himself to building, in the California desert, what is known as the Integratron, a machine 18 years in the making. Van Tassel believed he could extend the lives of humans by some 20 to 50 years in the Integratron by alternating their DNA molecules by utilizing an electrostatic generator.

But that's just a part of this story. Just as he was ready to try out the Integratron , Van Tassel died in a motel of a heart attack, under what some consider suspicious circumstances, with his notes and plans disappearing. The film, directed by Jonathan Berman, will go in many different directions. There's Van Tassel's public declarations of contact and conversations with aliens, who were the ones he claimed that gave him the formula for his time machine.

This was post WW 2 and there was plenty of paranoia about Communists, or even Fascists, trying to take over the U.S. government, and with suspicions raised by Van Tassel's neighbors the FBI opened a file on him and his operations. There was also a rather secretive and large military base in the vicinity near the Integratron.

They'll also be plenty of quirky interviewees in the doc some of who recount first hand those times, while others want to continue his work. Even Eric Burdon (Yes, The Animals musical group) has something to say here.

Overall, this film may be quite scattered in trying to coalesce all these themes, but I found it rather engaging and weird on the whole.

I like these kind of movies. It's like what happens if you spend all day on youtube.

And if you don't what the Integratron is, you need to find out. This film's really well made. Get ready to go down a whacked-out rabbit hole filled with intense info and all KINDS of unique people (and non-people).

Though the film initially aims to explore what went into the mysterious life and disappearance of one man, it turns into an unassuming portrait of one small part of the California desert that for decades has drawn an array of characters united in the feeling there's an other-worldly energy in that barren yet mystical landscape. The final result is a gentle stroll through a cast of characters who, in one way or another, are living "off the grid." The viewer may start by judging their sometimes divergent beliefs in extraterrestrial life and other-worldly energies, but by the end of the film, whether or not the aliens are real ceases to be as important as the very tangible community formed in the unlikeliest of places. The centerpiece of this fascinating world is a modest yet magical structure built by a man who, whether crazy or genius, was, at the very least, uncompromising in his vision.

This was a great slice -- well, a bite of a slice -- of a particular time and phenomenon in American cultural history. Kept me interested the whole time. Centered on another visionary/madman/genius (we're left to decide) and the people and movements he influenced and was influenced by. We've heard of Niccolo Tesla, Bucky Fuller, and some of us Zefram Cochrane. I never heard of this film's protagonist and so learned of yet another wack job and/or unappreciated hero. His struggle is timeless.

Great images, cuts, and more. Enjoyed it very much. Thank you...