Two years ago, local filmmaker Alexandre O. Philippe screened his odd documentary “Chick Flick” at the Starz Denver International Film Festival. It was a funny, if hard to swallow, tale of Miracle Mike – a chicken that survived for 18 months after his head was lopped off by Fruita, farmer Lloyd Olsen.
Now Philippe has turned his amused lens toward a different head scratcher: the embrace by a driven few of that famous warrior language, Klingon.
“Earthlings: Ugly Bags of Mostly Water” comes by its tart title with pop cultural honesty. That’s what Klingons consider us – bags, water, ugly.
Not exactly hotties themselves, Klingons are a battling race of humanoids with deeply furrowed brows that first made their appearance in the vast space of “Star Trek.” Original series writer Gene Coon named them after creator Gene Roddenberry’s former coworker in the Los Angeles Police Department.
One could joke that Philippe didn’t make much of a leap: a movie about a headless chicken to a documentary about fans who have lost their minds.
Yet the quiet charms of this film come because Philippe never condescends. There’s nary a smug frame to be found here. Talking heads include linguist Marc Okrand, the creator of the Klingon language; Lawrence Schoen, director of the Klingon Language Institute (kli.org); and Michael Dorn, the actor who played Lt. Worf, the Klingon security officer aboard the Enterprise from “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” They and avid speakers of the decidedly gruff tongue give heft to the undertaking. At its best, “Earthlings” provides insights into what language – even one considered “constructed” – offers us Earthlings. One slightly lisping postal worker says of his desire to master the language, “It’s about acceptance.”
As much as Philippe and Jeff Pointer, his inventive director of photography, try, they do not always overcome the limits of their budget. The lion’s share of material came during the four-day shoot in August 2003 of a Klingon Language Institute’s confab or qep’a’. Ask any drunk – there’s only so much you can do with lampshades. And the filmmakers, holed up in a Philadelphia motel, do most of them.
Philippe’s compassion won’t prevent you from rolling your eyes from time to time. Vying for quirkiest turn is Louise Witty, a woman so immersed in Klingon culture that she designs and hawks Klingon boots, and a guy who can’t help bragging what a brilliant paintball player he is.
When Witty first appears, her interview is subtitled. For a moment you might be confused: Gosh, Klingon sounds a lot like French. Witty is speaking French. Klingon actually sounds like a mix of a Slavic language and Hebrew.
Captain Krankor, aka Rich Yampell, tells of ordering a sandwich without using non-Klingon words. He admits he cheated by using the name of the rabbi who invented the Passover sandwich, Hillel, because it sounded close enough.
But the sweet truth of the movie speaks loudest as Mike Oetting sits for his Klingon aptitude test. But I won’t wogh – that’s Klingon for “transgress” – and tell you what happens.
“Earthlings: Ugly Bags of Mostly Water”
**½
NOT RATED|1 hour, 10 minutes|DOCUMENTARY|Directed by Alexandre O. Philippe; photography by Jeff Pointer; featuring Lawrence Schoen, d’Armond Speers, Rich Yampell, Michael J. Oetting|Opens today at the Starz FilmCenter.z
