They’re Here
(USA, 74 min.)
Dir. Daniel Claridge, Pacho Velez
Program: Nightvision
Long before The X-Files popularized the phrase “the truth is out there” humankind has had an unwavering fascination with space and the possibility of extraterrestrial life. Despite the numerous UFO (unidentified flying object) sightings reported yearly, those who profess such encounter or claim to have been abducted are often met with skepticism or ridicule. It is these individuals who directors Daniel Claridge and Pacho Velez focus on in their documentary They’re Here.
Taking viewers to New York state, where most of the sightings occur, Claridge and Velez introduce audiences to four people who have had firsthand experiences with UFOs. There is Cookie Stringfellow, a woman who claims to have been abducted 14 times. In 2008, she founded a social group in Rochester where others who had encounters, or believe in aliens, could come together in fellowship. One frequent attender, though not an official member, is Stringfellow’s good friend Steve Falcone. At age 65, and longing to retire from a job that he has been stuck in for many years, Falcone has created a UFO-based board game that he hopes will help him and others unlock buried memories about their encounters with extraterrestrials.
Rolling the dice on evoking connection through sharing one’s experiences is something that Dave Rivera and comedian Twon Wood navigate in different ways. Capturing footage of a flying object that he believes is not from this plant, Rivera has become a bit of a local celebrity. Despite having recorded proof of the incident, the video is still met with questions from his many doubters. The fact that Rivera was using drugs, to help him facilitate a meditative state, at the time of the sighting is also viewed as a knock against his claims. Unlike Rivera, Wood at least had a witness to his encounter. Accompanied by his roommate, Victoria Jochnowitz, the standup comedian is convinced that they witnessed a UFO in the sky. While Jochnowitz is a little more cynical about what the object might have been, Wood has been working hard to incorporate UFO-related jokes into his standup act.
While Wood uses humour to make sense of his experience, Claridge and Velez ensure that their subjects are not the butt of any jokes. Treating everyone with respect and compassion, They’re Here manages to raise some intriguing questions about the human need for connection. In delving into the various, and at times quirky, aspects of the UFO aficionado community, the documentary finds that the communal bonds birthed from these alleged encounters can be more intriguing than the aliens themselves. It is within this subculture that individuals such as Rivera being to discover aspects of their own lives that have not been fully addressed.
In presenting this community as a vessel for personal transformation, They’re Here touches on how each person has a void that they are trying to fill. Whether it is combating a sense of loneliness and stagnation or the need to have one’s experience validated, UFO enthusiasts provide an avenue for acceptance that transcends gender, race and class.
Although Claridge and Velez’s documentary has several interesting things to say about this subsection of society, it struggles to provide deeper insight into its subject’s lives beyond it. By defining them solely based on their encounters, the audience does not get enough insight into their daily lives (e.g. families and friendships) to feel the full impact of how the UFO experiences have impacted them. Besides Rivera, whose journey leads to a significant emotional breakthrough, the subjects that the filmmakers follow are thinly drawn. This is especially evident when Claridge and Velez incorporate some stylized moments to signify the transformation each person goes through. Using reenactments of the individuals being abducted by a space craft, the film inadvertently places each person’s plight on an equal plain when that is simply not the case.
For a film all about connections, the audience cannot help but feel a certain distance from these individuals. While They’re Here is to be commended for embracing it subject’s humanity, rather than mocking them, one cannot help but wish the depth of each individual had not been abducted.
