Children of the Stars: Exclusive Q&A with director Bill Perrine

Bill Perrine on the clock

My review of "Children of the Stars".

Watch the movie online via Amazon Instant.

Buy the DVD from the "Children of the Stars website".

See it on the big screen at the Blue Ridge Film Fest.
Watch the trailer for "Children of the Stars".

I'm honored to feature this Q&A with the writer and producer of "Children of The Stars", Bill Perrine. I found Bill online after I learned there would be an exclusive screening of his film in Buchanan, VA which isn't far from my home. He was nice enough to send me a DVD and answer some questions. The context he provides here may have altered my review had I read it beforehand. I love his answer about including skeptics in the documentary even though I myself am a hardline skeptic. I also didn't detect the resemblance to "Gates of Heaven", but now that he's mentioned it, it seems obvious. Really, all of Errol Morris' documentaries have share the same unobtrusive quality as opposed to a Werner Herzog documentary that features his voice and thoughts in every scene.

Enough from me, let's hear from the man himself.

Thanks for taking the time to answer some questions. Unarius is something I had never heard of until “Children of the Stars”. What was your first encounter with the group?

The Unarius films and programs were a fixture of public access TV when I was growing up. Now and then reporters both local and international would pay a visit for a “human interest” story. They seemed to pop up everywhere.

Do you consider Unarius to be a religion or a cult? Or is it something completely different?

They would state unequivocally that they’re a branch of science but they do have all the attributes of a religion, complete with angels and demons. So if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck… If you want to call them a cult though you might have to extend that term to any number of mainstream religions that follow a charismatic leader’s teachings. Diana Tumminia, the sociologist interviewed in my film, calls them a ‘contactee religion’.

(Right: Unarian prophecy says that the "Space Brothers" will bring a fleet of flying saucers that will stack on top of each other to create a free global university.)

When you first approached your subjects, were they open to the idea of a documentary? Did they have any conditions to be met about their on-screen portrayal?

I told them that I would take their beliefs as seriously as I would any other group’s. There were no conditions and I felt that they were as open and hospitable as they could be.

The people of Unarius seem to take their beliefs very seriously. The film, however, felt more like a comedy to me. It didn’t seem malicious though. Have you had any feedback from Unarius believers who have seen the film?

What you see as comedy the Unarians might see very differently indeed. What makes you laugh may to a Unarian be the recognition of an essential truth. The lines are blurrier than you might think. In any case, the Unarians have a surprisingly delightful sense of humor that and I think they can differentiate affectionate laughter from something crueler.  We’ll find out soon enough. As we speak, the film has only been officially out for about an hour so they haven’t seen it yet. I hope they’ll like it.

Uriel’s teachings seemed to be followed with a blind faith. Other groups with that sort of loyalty to a leader have shown the potential for violence or hate. Fred Phelps, Jim Jones, and David Koresh are a few examples. Did you find any potentially dangerous philosophy within the Unarius world?

The sects you mentioned above have very different belief systems based on withdrawal from and contempt for the world. The Unarians mostly have 9-5 jobs, hobbies, and all that stuff. They are also very tolerant of other faiths and lifestyles. Besides, after the death of Uriel there really is no leader per se so there’s no one to follow into the darkness. I didn’t see any signs of cult behavior and neither did the sociologist Diana Tumminia who studied and lived among them for years.

Most documentaries feature scholars and experts offering dissenting opinions from the film’s subject. Your approach allowed the subjects to tell their story without argument or interruption. Was this a conscious decision? Did you ever enter debate with your subjects off camera?

I would argue that the scholars and experts you cite are endemic to a certain type of documentary and, with some very notable exceptions, their use often represents a paucity of imagination in the filmmaker and a subsequent laziness in the viewer. It’s quite easy for everyone involved to have an expert tell you what to think, especially when the subject is one as easily dismissed as this. The juxtapositions created in editing are to me a more effective and more subtle counterpoint to a subject’s own words. I’ll admit to shamelessly following the template of Errol Morris’ great “Gates of Heaven” in this regard. I did interview the wonderful and insightful Diana Tumminia because her work as a sociologist allowed her to provide some needed context and a skeptic’s viewpoint but I told her from the beginning that I wanted to concentrate on entering the Unarius world with minimal mediation. As for debate, often the interview subjects are indeed responding to challenges I posed during questioning. It’s an illusion that they’re just talking off the top of their heads. I guided the conversations to the areas that interested me and engaged them in areas they may not have considered. I just cut my questions out of the film.

Did you ever participate in any of the Unarius services such as past-life therapy?

Nope, but by the end of filming they were remembering past lives I had supposedly lived with them thousands of years ago. I still don’t recall those!

As a filmmaker, what was your take on the films produced by Unarius?

They’re wonderfully ambitious and loads of fun. The effects are pretty amazing for their time and budget.

Your IMDB credits say this is your debut as a director of feature films. This is certainly a strange and ambitious project to start off with. What goals do you have in mind for the film?

Logistically it was about the easiest thing I could have done. Thematically it was ambitious but I’d rather try something audacious and fail than just do more of the same old same old. As for goals, like most filmmakers I’d just like it to get seen. If people are unnerved by the film I’m fine with that. If they enjoy it on any level that’s fine too.

Are documentaries your main interest as a director? Any subjects in mind for the future?

I’m working on a documentary about the San Diego music scene in the 90s when the record industry was convinced it would be “the next Seattle”.  Among other things I’d like to do a film about the great writer/adventurer William T. Vollmann but he’s going to need some convincing. I work as an editor primarily on docs but I’m helping a writer/director produce a narrative film that we will hopefully begin shooting early next year.

Lastly, how did you get involved with the Blue Ridge Film Festival?

They asked and I said yes. If only life were always that simple.