Whispers From Space
Ralph Coon's independent documentary follows the life of original "UFO-logist" Gray Barker, the author of dozens of pulp UFO books and publisher of the '50s Saucerian Bulletin. In artful black-and-white 16mm, Coon uncovers the truth about Barker through conversations with the Crumb-like oddballs who knew him in the hills of West Virginia: He never objectively believed in flying saucers. UFOs were an amusement and a business to Barker, who counterfeited government letters to titillate his fans and forged film footage of spacecraft (the scene of his colleague re-creating the hoax by dangling a model from a fishing pole is worth a thousand Weekly World News covers). Coon admits his film might not ignite the fires of today's believers, but his Whispers From Space succeeds in examining the origins and breadth of folklore while proving that the imaginations of Earthlings tran-scend anything that might hover in the night sky.
-- Jeff Stark
Whispers From Space screens Saturday, Oct. 25, at 8:30 p.m. at Artists' Television Access, 992 Valencia (at 21st Street), on a program that includes an appearance by Whispers director Ralph Coons and other films about UFOs. Tickets are $5; call 824-3890.
