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Category:    Home > Reviews > Special Interest > Speculation > Documentary > Aliens > Children Of The Stars (2012/Billingsgate Media/MVD DVD)

Children Of The Stars (2012/Billingsgate Media/MVD DVD)



Picture: C Sound: C+ Extras: C Main Program: C



Bill Perine's Children of the Stars (2012) is a crackpot documentary (if you can call it that) that is entertaining to a point and sad in another. Following the exploits of a cult-ish U.F.O. Contactee group who relive and recall their past lives on other planets by making their own low budget Sci-Fi films where they overcome the fear these lives have brought upon them. (One man blew up an entire planet with his Space Ship, Ender's Game style and has been haunted ever since.)


Being a believer in U.F.O.s, the extraterrestrials and haven't seen many docs on the subject, I found this one in particular to be pretty one sided. There are next to no opposing comments to fight these theories and most of the ones featured are so outlandish and ridiculous you have to wonder what drugs these people were smoking when they came up with some of this stuff.


In 1973, Ruth Norman, a 73 year old widow (whose Husband resembled Jesus and other important figures in mythology) and self described cosmic visionary purchased 67 acres of land in the mountains east of San Diego, California as a landing site for the Space Brothers, emissaries from the Intergalactic Confederation. Nearly 40 years later, a group of dedicated followers still await their arrival.


At the Unarius Academy of Science death does not exist, Nicola Tesla was a Space Brother, Satan drove a Cadillac and science fiction is real. To relive their pasts, the students film their own sci-fi extravaganzas with the increasingly extravagant Ruth Norman as the star and the lines between fantasy and reality dissolve.


The clips from the films that are shown in the documentary are the highlight of the piece, with many of the sets, production design, and acting so poorly done, it's hard to look away. The energy of the doc also seems to taper away starting around the mid-section, as what happens with most indie documentaries and we are left scratching our heads at the end, wondering what the heck we just watched.


The standard definition transfer is so-so throughout with a 1.85:1 widescreen aspect ratio, with many shots and archival footage grainy and compressed. The lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo track is fine for this release but average compared to the more clear and powerful audio tracks we are spoiled by on Blu-ray discs.


25 minutes of archival footage supports the feature length documentary on the disc.


If you're looking for a documentary about aliens and the supernatural, this isn't exactly the one you are looking for. It's more a look at an outlandish cult of people who believe they are space beings. Luckily, they aren't malicious people, but more or less just downright bizarre.



- James Lockhart

https://www.facebook.com/jamesharlandlockhartv/


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