Portrait of an Eccentric Savant

A NEW SHORT FILM COMING TO NETFLIX IS COSMICALLY DOWN TO EARTH

BY JOE NOLAN, FILM CRITIC

The global pandemic sent the whole world to their living room couches where most of us have spent some of our downtime watching films and catching up on streaming series. Movie watching — more than any of the cultural activities that have been disrupted by the various global lockdowns — has made the most-seamless pivot to digital. Of course films regularly stream to home screens following theatrical runs so the movie industry didn’t pivot so much as hop to an already established strategy near the end of a reliable distribution chain. That said, this period has changed the way we look at movies. One of the most interesting developments is the spotlight short films have received as film festivals have gone virtual and short films aren’t programmed against features in competing time slots.

“John Was Trying to Contact Aliens” is a new stand-alone short film coming to Netflix this Thursday, Aug. 20. The movie is a portrait of an eccentric electronics savant living in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. John Shepard spent decades marrying this natural facilities with wires and transmitters to his twin passions: music and contacting extraterrestrial aliens. This short picturing of Shepard’s life and work is a melancholy tale about a broken home and an isolated existence, but it’s also a story about perseverance, romantic optimism, and the meaning-making power of a creative life.

Director Matthew Killip begins Shepard’s story with his unexpected birth to a young mother and father. Shepard’s dad abandoned the little family, and his mother was unprepared for the responsibilities of raising a child. Luckily for Shepard, his mother’s parents, his grandparents, stepped in. Shepard never developed a bond with his mother, but his grandparents legally adopted him and provided him with a loving and supportive home to grow up in.

As a young man John became obsessed with music and evolved into a dedicated audiophile with sophisticated and far-reaching taste: Shepard shows off selections from his vinyl collection including albums by electronic music bands Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream and Harmonia; Brazillian guitarist Bola Sete and Afrobeat legend Fela Kuti; reggae records by Big Youth, and a selection of Eastern music ranging from Indian ragas to Indonesian Gamelan music. This little film about aliens and alienation features lots of unexpected needle drops, and this short will appeal to Nashville music heads as well as New Age true believers.

Shepard’s natural technical skills reach their zenith in the construction of a two-stories-high radio tower in his grandparents’ front yard. Much of the rest of the house is taken-over by primitive computers, technical monitors, and shining panels festooned with blinking lights, plugs, switches and wires. Killip uses lots of vintage photos and footage of young John playing cosmic deejay, sending his musical message buzzing — literally — beyond the moon.

The images and footage are married with interviews of Shepard in the present day, recalling his project and his coming of age in rural Northern Michigan. Shepard was obviously an eccentric young man, but by the time he was a preteen he also realized that he was gay. And the film’s central theme is about being an alien — whether a monster from another world or a person who doesn’t fit into the prescribed behaviors and beliefs of a small isolated community right here on Earth. Killip folds these two ideas together with a deft eye and a delicate hand that lets all of the fascinating facets of his subject’s personality emerge naturally. The result is a portrait of an artist of a kind who has to reach out for another world before he finds his footing in his own shoes.

“John Was Trying to Contact Aliens” comes to Netflix on Thursday, Aug. 20

Joe Nolan is a critic, columnist and performing singer/songwriter based in East Nashville. Find out more about his projects at www.joenolan.com.