She's chasing aliens. But what she finds feels a lot closer to home—and a hell of a lot harder to explain.
Kat Cunning leads Star People, a new sci-fi thriller that just dropped its first trailer ahead of its June premiere at the Dances With Films Festival. You've probably never heard of it. I hadn't either. But now I can't stop thinking about it.
And not because of the UFOs.
Written and directed by Adam Finberg, a documentarian making his narrative debut, Star People takes its cues from the real-life 1997 Phoenix Lights incident—the largest mass UFO sighting in U.S. history. That detail alone might raise eyebrows, but the film doesn't go full Close Encounters or Nope. Instead, it stays grounded in Claire (played by the magnetic Cunning), a photographer tormented by a decades-old experience that might—might—have been extraterrestrial. Or maybe it was just trauma in disguise.
The trailer's a strange brew: half fever dream, half slow-burn procedural. There's Claire sweating through a brutal summer heatwave, fielding mysterious tips, navigating strangers who may or may not be who they say they are. And somewhere between the flickering streetlights and glitchy radio signals, something starts to unravel—possibly her.
It's not subtle. But it is eerie.
Finberg, whose past work includes the addiction doc The Business of Recovery, seems to understand the deeper mechanics of belief—how we build entire identities around things we think happened. The desert setting, parched and bleached out, feels like a character in its own right, pressing down on Claire's sanity with every dry gust of wind.
And while the film wears its indie bones proudly—no glossy effects, no Marvel-level spectacle—it's that restraint that makes it work. The UFO is a MacGuffin. The real story is about grief, doubt, and the murky space between truth and delusion.
That said, the trailer doesn't quite scream breakout. It hints, it teases, but it doesn't shout. Still, I get the sense Star People isn't trying to be the next big sci-fi blockbuster. It's going for something smaller, maybe weirder. And for some of us? That's more compelling than a fleet of CGI motherships.
Confirmed Dates:
- Premieres at the 2025 Dances With Films Festival this June (exact screening date TBD).
- Opens in select U.S. theaters on July 25, 2025.
- Hits VOD platforms on August 12, 2025.
Claire might be chasing lights in the sky—but the real story? It's buried deep in the dirt below her.
Are we alone in the universe? Or just looking for something to believe in?
