This layered and oddball documentary mainly centers on George Van Tassel. He was a former aeronautical engineer, who devoted himself to building, in the California desert, what is known as the Integratron, a machine 18 years in the making. Van Tassel believed he could extend the lives of humans by some 20 to 50 years in the Integratron by alternating their DNA molecules by utilizing an electrostatic generator.
But that's just a part of this story. Just as he was ready to try out the Integratron , Van Tassel died in a motel of a heart attack, under what some consider suspicious circumstances, with his notes and plans disappearing. The film, directed by Jonathan Berman, will go in many different directions. There's Van Tassel's public declarations of contact and conversations with aliens, who were the ones he claimed that gave him the formula for his time machine.
This was post WW 2 and there was plenty of paranoia about Communists, or even Fascists, trying to take over the U.S. government, and with suspicions raised by Van Tassel's neighbors the FBI opened a file on him and his operations. There was also a rather secretive and large military base in the vicinity near the Integratron.
They'll also be plenty of quirky interviewees in the doc some of who recount first hand those times, while others want to continue his work. Even Eric Burdon (Yes, The Animals musical group) has something to say here.
Overall, this film may be quite scattered in trying to coalesce all these themes, but I found it rather engaging and weird on the whole.
But that's just a part of this story. Just as he was ready to try out the Integratron , Van Tassel died in a motel of a heart attack, under what some consider suspicious circumstances, with his notes and plans disappearing. The film, directed by Jonathan Berman, will go in many different directions. There's Van Tassel's public declarations of contact and conversations with aliens, who were the ones he claimed that gave him the formula for his time machine.
This was post WW 2 and there was plenty of paranoia about Communists, or even Fascists, trying to take over the U.S. government, and with suspicions raised by Van Tassel's neighbors the FBI opened a file on him and his operations. There was also a rather secretive and large military base in the vicinity near the Integratron.
They'll also be plenty of quirky interviewees in the doc some of who recount first hand those times, while others want to continue his work. Even Eric Burdon (Yes, The Animals musical group) has something to say here.
Overall, this film may be quite scattered in trying to coalesce all these themes, but I found it rather engaging and weird on the whole.
