**NOTE: Ignore the packaging on this film. It was made in the mid-seventies and has a great mid-seventies aesthetic and vibe that looks and feels nothing like this current packaging.
"Aliens" is a wild, deeply moving insider's view into the guru/yogi/cult/consciousness/alt. spirituality explosion of the 60s and 70s. With incredible archival footage and narrated Donovan (!!!), who also provides the film's soundtrack, this forgotten jewel of a film has original footage of the most controversial and popular spiritual leaders of the time and their followers, including Sai Baba, Yogi Bhahan, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Guru Maharaj Ji, Sri Sathya, Elizabeth Clare Prophet, Ram Dass and Father Yod (and the Source Family at morning meditation!!). This includes jaw-dropping footage of thousands of white, middle class young people walking across coals, recounting their kidnapping by "deprogrammers", chanting with shaved heads or long, long hair, and devoting themselves unconditionally, and with a deep satisfaction, to God Consciousness via their "alien" spiritual leaders.
The film also features Cybil Shepard, Martin Landau, Chicago 7 activist-turned-mystic Rennie Davis, actors Leigh Taylor Young, Linda Day George, and Raymond Bur getting starry-eyed about their gurus and God consciousness. Wowza!
This is one of the only films of the era I've seen that intelligently and provocatively counteracts the schlock and mass media sensationalism that basically demonized a generation of seekers in the 70s.
The film is at turns riveting, hilarious, mind blowing, and deeply moving. With its sympathetic viewpoint, "Aliens" stands, thirty years after it was made, as one of the most authentic documents of the era, and provides insight into a powerful movement of the 70s that is still widely misunderstood or even forgotten to this day--especially by current and recent "countercultures".
Jodi Wille
PROCESS Media