Children of the Stars (2012)

 Directed by Bill Perrine

Starring Archangel Uriel

Runtime 78min. - Not Rated

3.5 Stars (out of 4)

"Children of the Stars" has its world premiere tonight (9/22) at the Salt Lake City Film Fest.

For my local readers, the film plays in Buchanan, VA at the Blue Ridge Film Festival on October 12th at 2:40pm.

For more festival updates or to order the DVD visit the official website.
Available to watch instantly on Amazon. 

Part of my Quirky Documentary series. 

(The director of this film was nice enough to participate in some Q&A with me which you can find here.)

 

I had never heard of Unarius until I came across "Children of the Stars". I'm not quite sure how to describe Unarius. It's a cult. It's a religion. It's a group of filmmakers. It's a school. In my opinion, it's a collection of highly suggestible individuals who celebrate their shared delusions. Then again, that's my opinion of most major religions as well. I think that might be the message of the film, if there is one. Who are we to say these people are crazy when most of the world's mainstream religions have equally absurd beliefs when viewed with no bias?


Unarius is an acronym (sort of) that's short for UNiversal ARticulate Interdimensional Understanding of Science. It was founded by Ernest and Ruth Norman who met at a convention while Ruth was undergoing a psychic reading. Or did they? According to them, that was actually the latest of several meetings. In past lives they claim to have been Da Vinci, Isis and Osiris, Jesus and many other historical figures of earth. That doesn't include the time they spent as beings on other planets or the when they existed purely as interdimensional energies. You see, Ernest and Ruth are merely the current vessels inhabited by the Archangels Raphiel and Uriel respectively. They started Unarius in El Cajon, California not because of the low cost of living, but because the energies were just right. They also found a spot there to build a landing site for the Space Brothers, a group of extra-terrestrial beings like humans only more advanced, who are coming to enlighten our world and gift us with their technology.

Ernest and Ruth Norman a.k.a Raphiel and Uriel

Ernest died from a throat infection somewhat early on in the history of Unarius. This left Uriel as the head instructor and minister to the group. She helped her students work through their problems by relating them to past lives. As an example, two elderly ladies recall quarreling when they first joined Unarius. With the help of Uriel they learned their issues stemmed from time spent as male law enforcement officers on another planet. They were partners until one of them did something shady and the other wouldn't cover for him. Since realizing this experience they have became friends (again?). Another woman explains how the engine noise from a nearby classic car show used to annoy her until she accepted that those people were clinging to past lives where they worked on massive spaceships.

Science-fiction films are a big part of this documentary.Unarians say that nearly all sci-fi is factual in some way. One student states that their is no such thing as imagination. What we perceive as imagination is really just memories from our past lives. Director Bill Perrine uses stock footage from very old sci-fi movies as illustration for his interviews.

Unarius actually makes its own films. The students serve as the cast and crew along with Uriel. They proudly tell us no scripts are used. In their stead, the actors make up the dialogue based on their past life memories. I haven't seen any of their TV programs or feature films, but judging from the clips in the film they are the pinnacle of awfulness. "Actors" stumble over their words while wearing costumes that appear to have been stolen from grade-school talent shows. The special effects are less than special and usually feature glowing flying saucers of some sort.

The film is filled with Unarians stating their beliefs and experiences, but there's not much in the way of rebuttal. There's one person in the film who exists outside of Unarius and finds their beliefs comical, but it's not enough to balance the scales. Interviews with some serious skeptics and scholars who have studied Unarius from afar could have added some real perspective. It's not a fault in terms of entertainment value however, listening to these folks tell their stories never gets old.

In a way, skepticism doesn't even apply to Unarius. It's not as if they are making testable claims. If someone claims they can move objects with their mind, scientists can isolate them in a controlled environment and make an educated evaluation of that claim. However, when you claim to have lived as Jesus, Da Vinci or Satan and have the power to summon their consciousness and memories, there's really no test to debunk that claim, nor should there be. The burden of proof falls on people making outrageous claims and not those denying them.

In general, I have a real problem with groups like Unarius. The Unarians have enormous amounts of faith in the teachings of Ruth and Ernest. It's the same kind of faith you saw with David Koresh and Jim Jones. Fred Phelps' followers are always spewing hate on the news because of the same thought processes. In fairness, I don't see much danger coming from Unarius. They're crazy no doubt, but at least their crazy consists of peace, love and understanding.

Bill Perrine did a fine job with this film. Between the traveling to collect interviews and tedious searching of archived footage I'm sure the project was labor intensive. Beyond the initial concept though, I don't think it took much work to make the film interesting. Perrine was wise to let the material speak for itself without polluting it with interjections of his own. Unarius is so bizarre on its own that it needs no supplemental explanations. I think it's important for people to understand humanity's diversity. Via cinematic osmosis, this film gives us a chance to absorb a bit of subculture of which we would be otherwise ignorant. At the very least, it's a highly entertaining experience.