‘The Gulf Of Silence’ Is A Compelling and Heart-Breaking Pseudo-Documentary About UFOs [Unnamed Footage Festival Review]
Mary Beth McAndrews
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Dr. Laura Gale sits in front of the camera, staring directly into the lens, her eyes boring into your very soul. Her gaze captures you and you are drawn into her story about having a UFO experience which ultimately destroyed her engagement and brought her into the folds of a secret government agency. Her story is so compelling that you almost forget it isn’t real. No, this isn’t an actual clandestine confessional about the U.S. government. This is M.K. Rhodes’ extraterrestrial pseudo-documentary, The Gulf Of Silence.
Dr. Gale, played by Mandy May Cheetham, is the film’s sole character who tells her story directly to the camera. Some b-roll and archival footage are added in to provide more texture to the film. But this is ultimately the story of one woman’s deeply sad experiences after seeing a UFO. One light illuminates Gale on a black background, drawing the eye to meet Gale’s as she recounts falling in love with her fiance and how her career as a scientist was blossoming. Rhodes crafts Gale as a complex and layered character, letting us get to know her before diving into her UFO experience. We’re given a glimpse into her life before her experience, a life full of joy and promise.
When Gale tells her UFO story, she also shares how she was ridiculed for telling it. She was essentially bullied out of her job. Her fiance left her and she moved to Los Angeles desperately searching for a fresh start. She was alone, jobless, and embarrassed for sharing her truth. From here, Gale explains how a secret government agency recruited her to an agency with the singular goal of establishing first contact with whatever life was out there. From here the film takes its most horrific turn.
But Rhodes doesn’t show any horrific images or a climactic action sequence. Instead, she has Gale describe them from memory. In the style of films such as Monolith and even Pontypool, The Gulf of Silence relies almost entirely on audio to tell its story. This choice inevitably leads to the question, “does this need to be a movie?” And in this instance, it does. With Gale looking straight into the camera, it’s like she is speaking directly to you and asking you to bear witness to her traumas. Her gaze locks onto yours, daring you to look away.
In a Q&A at the Unnamed Footage Festival, Rhodes explained that she was influenced by the editing styles of Shin’ya Tsukamoto, best known for Tetsuo: The Iron Man. This includes seemingly random cuts to black while Gale continues to speak. It’s disorienting at first, but it does add to the film’s hypnotic quality.
Regardless, the writing is so compelling and heart-breaking, which helps the film transcend the usual alien movie tropes and become something entirely unique. It’s a tale of isolation and loneliness as much as it is about the existence of extraterrestrial life. It’s so convincing that UFO conspiracy theorists believed it was real, going so far as to doxx Rhodes for supposedly hiding the truth about aliens.
When M.K. Rhodes uploaded The Gulf Of Silence online, she meant it to be a piece shared between filmmakers. She shot her pseudo-documentary in the style of Portrait of Jason, a queer documentary from 1967. It was a practice in developing a compelling enough character to keep us engaged in just her talking to the camera for 90s minutes. But, instead, it was discovered by an entirely different crowd. Rhodes’ piece of found footage, unfortunately, did its job too well in emulating an image of truth.
The Gulf Of Silence is one of the most unique pseudo-documentaries I’ve ever seen. Rhodes’ simple yet deeply effective shooting style lets her complex story shine, one that taps into existential fears about life outside of our planet. Her experimental editing techniques and focus on just one talking head may unsettle and deter some viewers. But, if you’re willing to trust Rhodes’ vision, you’ll be rewarded with one of the most unique and heart-wrenching UFO films out there.
Summary
M.K. Rhodes’ pseudo-documentary ‘The Gulf Of Silence’ is an incredibly unique and gorgeous take on extraterrestrial horror.
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