Culture
AIFVF ’19 Interviews: ‘Welcome Space Brothers! The Films of the Unarius Academy of Science with Jodi Wille’
By: Emily Votaw
Posted on:
Filmmaker Jodi Wille grew up in Sylvania OH, a suburb of Toledo — a place that she refers to as a “very wonderful place to grow up,” if a bit “homogenous.” Early on, she developed an interest in The Other, first manifesting itself in discovering legendary visionary artist Howard Finster as a teenager. Her interests only intensified when she moved to Los Angeles after graduating from Ohio University’s Film School in 1991.
It was there that she began to discover various alternative spiritual groups, which eventually led to her first feature length documentary, The Source Family.
On Saturday, April 13 at 7:15 p.m., the Athens International Film and Video Festival will present “Welcome Space Brothers! The Films of the Unarius Academy of Science with Jodi Wille,” which features a number of the fascinating “documentary” psychodramas that another alternative spiritual group, The Unarius Academy of Science, crafted throughout the ’70s and ’80s.
As a part of the Unariun’s personal spiritual paths to healing, they crafted “documentary” psychodramas in which they reenacted their past lives. The group was led by the eclectic Ruth Norman, (aka Archangel Uriel,) who was very aware of the power of film, creativity, and no-budget special effects.
During Saturday’s event, Wille will present her short film on Unarius, We Are Not Alone, as well as the Unarius 1980 masterwork feature The Arrival. Some Unariuns will even be in attendance for a Q&A on Saturday.
WOUB spoke to Wille about the event in the interview above.