I heard about this super short documentary on Netflix about a guy named John Shepard who grew up in northern Michigan. It's a short story about his search for alien life. I suggest everyone check it out. To be honest, it's kind of a strange story. John Shepard grew up in a very rural northern Michigan town. The synopsis lists the doc as: "A rural electronic whizz broadcasts radio signals into space and monitors for signs of aliens, but makes a more important connection here on Earth."

In reality, 'John Was Trying To Contact Aliens' premiered at the Sundance Film Festival this year and was named the winner of the 'Short Film Jury Award: Non Fiction'. Shepard states that he was basically raised by his grandparents in northern Michigan (he never does specify where), and has spent over 30 years trying to contact alien life with equipment that he built himself. In the documentary, he expresses how he got his start for his search and just how big the search grew:

I started by myself. My grandfather helped me. I live with my grandparents in a small cottage in Northern Michigan. I started building the electronic equipment to make contact with whatever might be out there. It grew to encompass an entire bedroom. That equipment continued to grow, and in the next two years it was migrating into the living room. It became more and more massive.

The documentary also touches on his experience with finding love as a homosexual man, a very tough thing to endure in a small conservative town up north. But although the search for aliens has yet to pay off, John is happy with his love life and is still doing what he can to make contact. It's definitely worth a watch.

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