Six Days in Roswell

Running time: N/A

In 1997, Roger Nygard investigated the mania that turned a television show into an institution--Trekkies. As producer of Six Days in Roswell, Nygard examines another popular American subculture with the clever direction of Timothy B. Johnson. They go to Roswell, New Mexico. The outset of Six Days in Roswell is the 50th anniversary of a UFO crash that may or may not have happened outside Roswell in 1947. Our tour guide, Richard Kronfeld, lives in his mother's basement. He spends his time researching kook wisdom or building oddities from discarded electronics. He wants to be abducted by aliens, but that might be an act; it's a starting point for many insights. It is the jubilant transformation of the town that is the subject of Johnson's film, not whether the crash really happened at all. With a mixture of deadpan wit and a bit of gentle curiosity, the adventure of Six Days in Roswell is something uniquely American. --Brian Benston