George Van Tassel channels alien beings in a scene from Calling All Earthlings (Freestyle Digital Media)

This peculiar documentary centers on the legacy of ufologist George Van Tassel, but what it really seems to be about is how Southern California is chock-full of eccentrics. The earliest moments offer a CliffsNotes version of the subject’s life, including his claim that in 1953, a strange man and a mysterious aircraft appeared in the desert town of Landers. Twenty-five years later, Van Tassel was found dead in a hotel room under mysterious circumstances, launching a wave of conspiracy theories that locals in the community of Joshua Tree, who seem to have a penchant for wearing odd hats, still talk about.

A one-time aviator, Van Tassel chose to give it all up to live in the desert, where he opened a cafe that soon became a popular gathering spot. It was during this period that he had his famous sighting of an alien being. He described it as looking like a man in his early 20s, but it claimed to be, in fact, 700 years old. According to Van Tassel, the visitor said it was kept perpetually young thanks to a time machine, the secrets of which it passed along to him. Van Tassel supposedly used them for his Integratron, an enormous building that was also partially based on the engineering theories of inventor and futurist Nikola Tesla.

The main subject also founded an organization, the Ministry of Universal Wisdom, as well as staged a conference on UFO encounters that went on to meet annually for roughly two decades. Both endeavors helped put him on the FBI’s radar, and the film and its many interviewees are convinced the law enforcement agency eventually took Van Tassel out.

Even the tallest of tales can become entertaining viewing as long as there’s a compelling protagonist. But in this case, the film starts off with a black hole, which never gets filled in. There are numerous interviews with those who knew Van Tassel during the ministry’s heyday, as well as his son-in-law and adult grandson, all of whom talk about his brilliance. However, we never get the sense that any of them really knew him well. Nor does the film do much to dig beneath the surface level. Director Jonathan Berman opts not to stage any of Van Tassel’s life via actors, and so the only screen time Van Tassel gets is in interview footage from a local television program. As such, he remains enigmatic to the end.

Not that Berman seems much interested in telling Van Tassel’s story as opposed to exploring his enduring influence on places like Joshua Tree, where the filmmaker interviews no shortage of persons with idiosyncratic New Age beliefs, the most memorable of whom is certain humankind arrived on Earth from another planet. (There is also a self-described “channeler” who attempts to speak for the long-gone Van Tassel.) The film uses synthesizer music, odd camera angles, and foggy lens effects to create a sense of mystery, but there are also times in which Berman seems to be inviting viewers to gawk at the interviewees.

Calling All Earthlings doesn’t do much to convince us of the validity of Van Tassel’s work, nor does it make a strong case that he was actually the target of a government conspiracy. (Yes, the FBI opened a file on him, but was there anybody they weren’t keeping a close eye on back then?) Meanwhile, if the intent was to offer insights into a mostly unheralded figure in the world of UFO-sightings lore, the film falls short in that regard as well. But what’s undeniable is that Van Tassel managed to amass no shortage of believers, who still view his loss as an opportunity wasted. They will likely feel the same way about this film.