If the aliens are among us, what are the chances that lot of ‘em are high leaders in various spiritual and religious movements? That’s what they questioned in the 70s, when political activism, spirituality, psychedelic art, and freaky extra-terrestrial shit all converged. Aliens from Spaceship Earth, released in 1977, documents this epoch through questions about divinity and human existence and footage of Sai Baba, Yogi Bhahan, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Guru Maharaj Ji, Elizabeth Clare Prophet, Ram Dass and Father Yod, as well as the cosmic poetry of snakes slithering through the desert and swirly starry skies and, um Donovan. It’s one of few experiments in this movement’s visual commentary and documentation that didn’t rip on it, nor the thousands of so-called normals who jumped on the magic carpet with them.This breakthrough in consciousness gave birth to the highly enlightened era known as 80s. There’s similar stuff brewing these days--let’s hope we do a better job this time around. We can get a head start at Process Media's screening of this film on Sunday at Cinefamily; afterward there’s a discussion with filmmaker Don Como, Hare Krishna devotee Nrsimhananda das (aka David Shapiro), a former Source Family member named Orbit, and a non-demoninational cult-exit counselor, among others.Aliens from Spaceship Earth
Sunday, November 20, 6 to 9 PM
Cinefamily at the Silent Movie Theatre
611 North Fairfax Avenue, Los Angeles