Close Encounters of the Heard Kind

If The X Files taught us anything, it's that finding the truth that is 'out there' takes a lot of belief, perseverance and flying in the face of authority. Then again, Mulder and Scully didn't have Facebook.

Following the amassed crowds convinced by 2019's 'Storm Area 51' Facebook event and ensuing meme (a planned 'raid' on Area 51 in a search of extraterrestrial life), director Scott Lazer's lighthearted but insightful documentary Visitors dives deep into the theories surrounding ET's arrival and the people that hold them. 

Involving Lazer and his cinematographer Taylor McIntosh taking a flight to Las Vegas and renting a local converted sprinter van which served as transportation, lodging, and production office, the film grows as they interview the residents of Rachel (the town set as the event;s base) and its spectators in this dreamy, absurd, and profound look at our intrinsic desire to understand the world and life beyond ourselves.

"I became interested in making this film in late summer 2019," Lazer notes, "when the 'Storm Area 51' memes began to flood the Internet. I had saved a little nest egg with the intention of waiting for a story that intrigued me enough to jump on it quickly, and this seemed like just the right amount of absurd but also potentially thoughtful fodder that I would want to make into a film. I anticipated a unique convergence of different groups of people who don’t tend to interact: desert folk who are already reclusive, internet trolls and influencers, and the serious alien/UFO activist community all together in the middle of the Great Basin Desert in Nevada.

"I’ve been fascinated with the public’s relationship with UFOs and aliens for a long time. A tipping point came in 2017 when The New York Times released a US Navy video of what the Navy called an “unidentified aerial phenomenon” - what looked like a giant tic tac - zipping across the sky. This was the first time corporate news media had reported on UFOs seriously, which thrust the conversation about life beyond our planet into the mainstream. It’s no coincidence that an Internet prank like “Storm Area 51” went viral less than two years later. And while the whole ordeal as it played out online was pretty silly, I think it reveals something greater about our intrinsic desire to know with whom we share the universe.

"I actually had no idea where Area 51 or Rachel, Nevada was initially, and if this had taken place in a convention center or an arena, I wouldn’t have been interested in the story at all. But because this social media phenomenon would be downloaded from the Internet to the real world, that hooked me. Once we secured the van, Taylor and I both looked at this whole thing as an adventure. Flying to Vegas and driving a few hours north to Rachel, Nevada in a van to film strangers sounded exhilarating.