Documentary filmmaker Jodi Wille will be screening her new film Welcome Space Brothers
Anderson Museum of Contemporary Art
Thursday, June 25, at 7 PM
With a Q&A to follow. Jodi will be joined in discussion with one of the subjects of the documentary, Paula Greenwood.
WELCOME SPACE BROTHERS is a feature documentary about the hard-to-believe but one-hundred percent true story of The Unarius Academy of Science, an extraterrestrial-channeling spiritual school and self-healing community established in the 1970s in El Cajon, California. Under the outlandish direction of its charismatic leader Ruth E. Norman, known to followers as “Archangel Uriel,” Unarius evolved from a fringe spiritual movement into a wildly prolific public access television staple of the 1980s.
Director Jodi Wille (The Source Family) brings this singular American story to the screen with the same affectionate, wide-eyed fascination the subject demands.
CRITICAL PRAISE FOR WELCOME SPACE BROTHERS
Film Threat - Welcome Space Brothers Review
“If I didn’t know Jodi Wille’s film, Welcome Space Brothers, was a documentary, I’d swear it was a WTF, insane, sci-fi tale of weirdness. The story of Ruth is fascinating…..”
Artillery - FILM: Welcome Space Brothers Review
As with her previous film The Source Family…she remains steadfastly non-judgemental about the unconventional spiritual utopian communitarianism that is so often dismissed as delusional hippy bullshit. Where corporate stooge David Letterman saw Uriel as one zany kook among an endless stream of “talent,” Wille accepts her as a significant historical figure—a flawed but visionary creative force for good in the world, deserving of our respect.”
“It’s a vision of healing, acceptance, peace, cooperation, and hope, expressed through an outpouring of unbridled creative energy. If that spells crazy, beam me up!”
Nova Religio - Review
“...absolutely riveting…we see a host of mid-twentieth-century Americans feeling dislocated and lost...craving a sort of creativity, acceptance, and love…Ruth Norman, with her gaudy wigs, visions of intergalactic confederations, and absolute confidence that the few dozen people she gathered around herself could produce art so powerful it would change the world, gave it to them."
DIRECTOR’S BIO
Jodi Wille (Director) is a filmmaker, curator, and book publisher known for her in-depth work exploring American subcultures and visionary artists. She directed and produced the acclaimed documentary THE SOURCE FAMILY (2013), which world-premiered in competition at SXSW Film Festival and had a 60-city theatrical run. WELCOME SPACE BROTHERS is her second feature documentary. Wille is an award-winning book publisher and author who recently released the coffee table book FAMILY: THE SOURCE FAMILY SCRAPBOOK (Sacred Bones/Otherworld. She has curated national museum and gallery exhibitions internationally featuring the art and films of outsider artists and alternative spiritual communities.