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‘I’ve never seen necessarily an alien but I’ve met some humans that might not be considered born here …’
In June 2019, a prank Facebook event titled ‘Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of Us’ went viral, with some 1.5 million users indicating – ironically or not – an interest in blitzing the famed US Air Force facility in Nevada, long rumoured to contain evidence of extraterrestrial life. By the time the event date arrived in September, most of the world had moved on from the gag. Ultimately, only about 1,500 people descended on the remote Nevada towns around Area 51 – the vast majority of whom had no real designs on storming the facility.
One such attendee was the New York-based filmmaker Scott Lazer, who travelled to the town of Rachel, Nevada, located 27 miles north of Area 51, where a small UFO-themed festival was taking place. There, he found the expected, eccentric collection of UFO diehards recounting sightings and contemplating the nature of extraterrestrial life. But Visitors, his short documentary account of the event, offers more than just an invitation to tour a peculiar subculture. As he interviews true believers and Rachel locals alike, a thread begins to emerge – of people striving to make sense of their place in a strange universe, and seeking connections with something greater than themselves.
Director: Scott Lazer
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Consciousness and altered states
‘I want me back’ – after a head injury, Nick struggles with his altered reality
7 minutes
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Meaning and the good life
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Animals and humans
One man’s quest to save an orphaned squirrel, as narrated by David Attenborough
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History
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Wellbeing
Children of the Rwandan genocide face a unique stigma 30 years later
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Earth science and climate
Images carved into film form a haunting elegy for a disappearing slice of Earth
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Meaning and the good life
Leading 1950s thinkers on the search for happiness in trying times
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Biology
Butterflies become unrecognisable landscapes when viewed under electron microscopes
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War and peace
Two Ukrainian boys’ summer unfolds just miles from the frontlines
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