 |
 |
|
|
 |
 |
SIX DAYS IN ROSWELL
Produced and Edited by Roger Nygard
Directed by Timothy B. Johnson
Director's of Photography - David Doyle and Adam OlsonRichard Kronfeld - Richard Kronfeld
My favorite movie that I don't currently own on disc is TREKKIES, possibly the funniest movie made since BLAZING SADDLES. If you haven't seen it, you owe it to yourself. TREKKIES delves into the world of overly obsessive Star Trek fans, and reveals them to be a frightening bunch. It's the single reason why I rarely mention that I'm a fan, the thought of being lumped with the movie's assortment of no-lifers frightens me to death.
The makers of TREKKIES, Roger Nygard and Timothy Johnson, now turn their camera on the world of UFO fanatics with SIX DAYS IN ROSWELL, and the results are far superior and more outlandish than anything shown in their earlier effort. Where TREKKIES was a world filled with people willfully being duped by marketing companies out of pure love for a pop-culture event, SIX DAYS IN ROSWELL is about people willfully being duped by marketing companies out of pure fear that our government is lying to us regarding a pop-cultural event.
Anyone who has watched the X-Files over the past 10 years is familiar with the stories of the Roswell UFO crash and the supposed government cover-up that followed. The set up for SIX DAYS IN ROSWELL is simple - go down to Roswell, New Mexico on the 50th anniversary of the crash and capture the people commemorating the event.
There are two concepts to keep in mind while watching ROSWELL: as two interviewees note, "just put ‘alien' on it and it sells," and "what might have actually happened, may have actually happened." There you have it, the ground work for a group of people needing to believe in something other than themselves in order to connect to like-minded people.
Rather than let the camera be an un-objective viewer, the filmmakers do something genius, they create a fictional character and follow him around the festival. Wisconsin comedian Richard Kronfeld (also seen in the brilliant GO TO HELL) plays ...er... Richard Kronfeld, or at least an ultra-nerdy version of himself. Many elements of the character are lifted directly from Kronfeld's own life, including his fascination with older audio/video equipment and his motorized Capt. Pike chair, also visible in TREKKIES.
This version of Kronfeld lives at home with his mother and wants to be abducted by an UFO. It's the only way he can break his middle-aged loser existence. His goal is to go to Roswell and create a "case profile" for abductees so he can mold his life into something that the aliens might find desirable for probing.
What Kronfeld finds in Roswell is as utterly bizarre and amazing as one could imagine an alien visitation to be. In his pursuit of a true abductee profile, Kronfeld uses his ancient a/v equipment to interview real life people: professors, politicians, psychopaths, and profiteers. For every Roswellian P.T. Barnum, there are 10 suckers born every minute, all willing to believe that for a few dollars the truth is out there.
Kronfeld's I-want-to-believe attitude is the icing on the cake. It provides moments of pure deadpan comedy as he pushes the people of Roswell into opening up for the camera. And there's not a word that comes out of anyone's mouth that the speaker doesn't hold true except for a single young woman hocking Roswell rocks that are guaranteed to attract aliens. She almost seems embarrassed to be taking advantage of people so easily, which the rest of Roswell has no problem doing.
As revealing as ROSWELL might be, the approach is never judgmental. Sure the people might seem a little strange with their zealot fixation on the crash site, but the camera never demeans the subject. The result is a profile of the Roswell phenomenon rather than the people who allow it to prosper.
There are moments in ROSWELL that are pure fiction, staged by the filmmaker to establish Kronfeld the character. Most take place outside of Roswell, but I won't point out which ones exactly, as spotting them are half the fun. On the DVD commentary, the filmmakers note that they are regularly besieged by viewer's questions asking what specific scenes were real and what were staged. Hearing them give away each detail takes away from the myth surrounding the movie, and I wish they hadn't done it. Just like that first glimpse of THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT on IFC's Split Screen so many years ago, SIX DAYS IN ROSWELL is the kind of movie you want to loan your friends under the pretext that "it's all real" just to sucker them in.
The rest of the Synapse Special Edition DVD is as fun as the movie, and comes packed with notable extras including a buffet of deleted scenes, trailers, making of, production photos, UFO facts and trivia, bios, and early short works from Johnson, Nygard, and Kronfeld. As a consumer, I have to say it, if you find yourself stuck paying full price for this movie, you are still getting a deal. Both the movie and the presentation of 100% guaranteed blast.
Six Days In Roswell
Synapse Films