Rob Munday
While they may not arrive in the form of glowing-fingered BMX riders or acid-blooded, hive-minded killing machines, the sheer scale of the universe makes the existence of some form of extraterrestrial life feel more than plausible. With recent surveys suggesting that a majority of Americans believe intelligent life exists beyond Earth, documentary filmmakers Tom Tennant and Theo Tennant turn their cameras towards a UFO hotspot much closer to home: South Wales. Yet, as their life-affirming short Other Life demonstrates, the answers to some of humanity’s biggest questions can often be found in the most unexpected places.
“We got really excited about the ways we could tell this story and make a sci-fi documentary”
“Our family is from South Wales, so when we found out it was supposedly a UFO hotspot, we were immediately hooked,” the directing duo explain. They were particularly drawn to the idea that extraterrestrials might take an interest in a place that “has been wilfully ignored by the mainstream”. However, Other Life isn’t concerned with proving whether alien life exists or debunking stories of close encounters. Instead, it poses a different question entirely: “What is it about South Wales as a region that makes UFO sightings so prominent?”
In asking that question, the film becomes less about life beyond our planet and more about the people searching for meaning here on Earth. The possibility of alien visitation is merely the starting point for a wider exploration of place, identity and belief, revealing how stories of the extraordinary can offer comfort and a sense of connection in communities that often feel overlooked. Guided by self-described “best friends” Mike and Emlyn – UFO experts, radio presenters and podcasters – we’re taken on a tour of South Wales, meeting its residents as Theo Tennant’s camera occasionally assumes the role of something distinctly “other”, often following the pair as though observing humanity for the first time.
Mike and Emlyn recording an interview with a UFO witness.
“We got really excited about the ways we could tell this story and make a sci-fi documentary,” the co-directors reveal as we discuss their inventive approach to bringing the film to the screen. Inspired by the work of photographer and filmmaker Richard Mosse, particularly his use of military imaging technology, the brothers employ thermal cameras to inject certain scenes with a “silvery, other-worldly, surveillance energy”. “These cameras are often used on high-end nature documentaries, but there’s always something interesting about turning them on humans,” they explain. “It kind of reframes us and reminds us we’re animals, putting us on an equal footing with the world around us. So, in the film, it’s supposed to feel like an alien following them and discovering Planet Earth, seeing these very everyday things as if for the first time.”
To further create that alien perspective, the pair also infused the editing of the thermal sequences with what they describe as a “non-human energy”, imagining a spectator that experiences time and space differently from ourselves. In the rest of the film, working alongside editor Jamie Kataky, they developed a clinical rhythm, jumping from scene to scene with little preamble or lingering. The aim, they explain, was to create something that plays “more like a fiction than a doc”. Although the filmmakers insist the film is “deliberately not beautiful”, there is nevertheless something undeniably captivating about its aesthetic. Its strange, otherworldly perspective makes familiar places feel entirely new again, and with alien life hardly an unfamiliar subject in cinema, it’s precisely this inventive approach that makes Other Life feel so distinctive.