John Was Trying to Contact Aliens
By Brian Costello,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Short docu explores the need to connect; mature themes.
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John Was Trying to Contact Aliens
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Based on 1 parent review
Contacting aliens on why they used a UFO to my house to take my daughter
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What's the Story?
JOHN WAS TRYING TO CONTACT ALIENS tells the story of John Shepherd, a man living in rural Michigan who spent three decades broadcasting music in the hopes of reaching extraterrestrial life. Against a backdrop of the 1960s and '70s Space Race, NASA, and science fiction, Shepherd began building increasingly elaborate and bulky supercomputers through which he would broadcast radio programs of his favorite music, like electronic music, Krautrock, reggae, and Afropop, millions of miles into outer space. This made him something of a local media sensation, but, as John reveals, this passion for connecting with aliens was, in part, rooted in a difficult home life and being a gay man during a time when being a gay man was unacceptable. As the lonely years continued, and Shepherd's music went, presumably, unheard by extraterrestrials, he experiences true love at first sight, confirming his assertion made before meeting the love of his life that, "for everyone, there is someone."
Is It Any Good?
Sometimes, feature-length documentaries come out in which the story is more or less an anecdote that could've been told in 20 minutes or less. With John Was Trying to Contact Aliens, the opposite is the case. Clocking in at 16 minutes, it's a short, too-short documentary that feels like a story has been summarized and glossed over. What appears to be a story of an oddball eccentric's obsession with using 1970s overlarge supercomputers to broadcast Kraftwerk to any extraterrestrial beings interested in hearing "Autobahn" on their flying saucer FM radios becomes a poignant and much-needed message on love and humanity's innate need for connection.
While the story and message do emerge in the 16 minutes, the jump from John Shepherd's decades of alien-obsessed loneliness to finding true love feels abrupt and rushed. We get the facts, some archival footage, and present-day interviews, but the audience is left feeling like they read the Cliff's Notes version -- told rather than shown. It's over and done with too quickly, at the expense of a greater emotional depth that's clearly there, but unexplored. It's not a bad documentary by any stretch, but its short length leaves a lingering sense of a missed opportunity, that there's more to this than what's presented.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about documentaries. How does John Was Trying to Contact Aliens compare to other documentaries you've seen?
How does the documentary use contemporary and archival footage to tell the story?
What are the deeper themes explored in the documentary? Do you think the documentary does a good job of connecting John's interest in contacting aliens with his personal life? Why or why not?
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming: August 20, 2020
- Cast: John Shepherd
- Director: Matthew Killip
- Studio: Netflix
- Genre: Documentary
- Topics: Space and Aliens
- Run time: 16 minutes
- MPAA rating: NR
- Last updated: February 18, 2023
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