STAR PEOPLE
Adam Finberg‘s narrative feature debut, STAR PEOPLE, arrives to engross Dances With Films LA 2025 audiences. The film follows a photographer who receives a tip about the same strange lights she witnessed in childhood. But, a heatwave and tensions between unexpected guests threaten everything.
The archival news footage sets a brilliant tone for STAR PEOPLE. Combining alien hunting with an immigration story is incredibly clever and entirely seamless. Finberg brilliantly tackles racism and the sick practices of border coyotes and anti-immigration militants. Everything is high stakes as temperatures rise to deadly levels, and the chance to solve Claire and Taylor’s biggest childhood mystery seems less and less likely.
Connor Paolo plays influencer Justin with a precise amount of self-absorption. Similar to his performance in 13 Reasons Why, Paolo elevates his scene partners with his presence. You will love to hate him in this role. Eddie Martinez is the perfect foil for Paolo, playing the dedicated father, Ricardo. He is passionate and kind, leaving the audience in the shoes of a desperate parent.
McCabe Slye is Claire’s junkie brother Taylor. Slye is outstanding, tapping into Taylor’s manic PTSD like a pro. He steals every frame he’s in. Kat Cunning‘s Claire is desperately chasing answers from childhood. Her comfort in front of the camera is unmatched. She and Slye’s chemistry is movie magic.
Aiden Chapparone‘s cinematography is beautiful. Paired with a perfect synth-inspired score from Reza Safinia, each element complements the next. Claire’s visions are a mix of memories and nightmares. To piggyback on her condition, a theory 3/4 of the way through from the rather loathsome Justin is like a gut punch. You’re so emotionally invested in Claire’s arc that you hope he’s wrong.
STAR PEOPLE truly grabs you from the very first frame. It is a film for dreamers, cynics, and stargazers alike. Mulder was right. The truth is out there. STAR PEOPLE embraces humanity at its best and worst.
Star People Trailer:
WORLD PREMIERE
Directed and written by: Adam Finberg
Producers: Adam Finberg and Josh Shader
Starring: Actor and recording artist Kat Cunning (The Deuce, On Swift Horses), McCabe Slye (Destroyer, Fear Street Trilogy), Connor Paolo (The Last Stop in Yuma County, Revenge, Gossip Girl), Eddie Martinez (The Sinner, Night Swim), Bradley Fisher (Westworld), and Adriana Aluna Martinez (Duster).
Inspired by The Phoenix Lights, the largest mass UFO sighting in U.S. history, STAR PEOPLE is a sci-fi thriller that tells the story of a photographer (Kat Cunning) who receives a tip that could finally shed light on her childhood UFO sighting, but a deadly heatwave and unexpected guests threaten to derail her obsessive search for answers.
Adam Finberg (Writer/Director/Producer)
Adam Finberg grew up in Phoenix, Arizona,, and moved to Southern California to attend the American Film Institute’s directing program. He’s worked the past 20 years as a writer, director, and editor. Star People is his first feature-length narrative film.
Adam began his career directing music videos (Armin van Buuren, Malbec, Otis) before moving on to commercial work (Napoleon Perdis, GoDaddy). His first documentary, After Katrina: Rebuilding St. Bernard Parish, shined a light on the perils and pains of post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans.
His first feature documentary, The Business of Recovery, dove into the secret lucrative world of the American addiction treatment industry. The film was featured on Last Week Tonight With John Oliver as it sparked conversations about the rehab industry and was even showcased at the International Drug Policy Reform Conference in Washington, DC to help guide policy decisions.
Through the years, Adam has been a lead editor on numerous unscripted television shows on a variety of networks, including Discovery, WETV, The History Channel, Lifetime, MSNBC, History, TruTV, Oxygen, ABC, CMT, Showtime, VH1, and MTV.
Running Time: 103 Minutes
Language: English
Feature Film (USA, 2025)
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DEATH PERCEPTION
The hilarious and terrifying overall premise might seem unrealistic to some, but I can tell you it is entirely plausible. When my husband was a first-year associate coming out of grad school at Yale, he passed out on the way to work three days in a row from lack of sleep. After being revived by police officers and refusing medical attention, he arrived five minutes late only to be told, “That’s a YP, a You Problem.” Empathy be damned when there is a dollar or deal to be made.
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