Journey to Planet X

Directed by Myles Kane and Josh Koury, Journey to Planet X is a warts-and-all documentary about passion, inspiration, and the endless possibilities of green screen. Troy Bernier and Eric Swain are respectively, a geologist and a civil engineer, but it quickly becomes clear that their true passion lies in creating earnestly amateur sci-fi epics on a shoestring budget. The film follows them as they embark on production of Planet X, their biggest movie yet, and Journey's low-key drama comes as much from the pair dealing with amateur actors, outdated equipment, and pesky sunrises as it does from Troy's perfectionist attitude bumping up against Eric's more laidback mindset. For Eric, the guns-and-babes flick is simply an escape from his everyday bachelor life; newly-married Troy sees it as springboard to something bigger. The tension between their differing viewpoints on their Ed-Wood style productions offers an interesting commentary of the relationship between the professional amateur and the casual hobbyist. With almost unlimited access to the sometimes painful, often humorous birth of Planet X, Kane and Koury have created a snapshot of the frustrating and rewarding process that sees a film travel from a makeshift studio to a premiere screening, and an acknowledgement that there are no small films, only small directors.