How do we connect to film on a personal level? Written by critically acclaimed Alberta author George Melnyk, My Mother is an Alien brings autobiographical responses to film, daringly exposing the author's personal insights, beliefs and sensitivities. Ten essays explore Canadian and international film. Essays delve into such films as Leolo, Last Night, Clearcut and, as the title implies, Alien.

George Melnyk is an associate professor of Canadian studies and film studies in the Faculty of Communication and Culture, University of Calgary. He is a cultural historian who specializes in Canadian cinema. Among his film publications are One Hundred Years of Canadian Cinema (2004) and Great Canadian Film Directors (2007). Most recently he has published The Young, the Restless, and the Dead: Interviews with Canadian Filmmakers (2008) in the Film and Media Studies series at WLU Press.

George Melnyk's profile page

"I feel little connection to Das Boot, but through Melnyk's reflections I've come to better
understand why one particular part of Black Hawk Down is such an essential expression
of a consuming force within my own life. That sense of self-discovery is not commonplace
among the tens of thousands of pages we read within our lives. It is, therefore,
something special to find it within the 144 pages from George Melnyk..." - Martin Van Woudenberg, Pacific Rim Review of Books