This was an interesting documentary, based on the book by Mark Pilkington, no matter where you come down on the subject of UFOs. I like to stride the middle of the road, I really want to believe that they are out there, and they may very well have been here before. But there is so much that seems beyond belief, so much that obfuscates the subject, and it seems a bunch of that was actually planned and set in motion by the U.S. government.

The film provides no real answers, but poses more questions, and I love something like that, especially where this subject is concerned. It focuses on the government’s work to spread disinformation, and manipulate the UFO community. It specifically follows former agent Rick Doty, who is a convincing storyteller and has had his hand involved in some of the big lies, including an infamous case surrounding Paul Bennewitz, a scientist almost driven to insanity by his belief, which parties in the government fostered that an invasion was imminent, if not already happening.

There are interviews with Linda Moulton Howe, an investigative journalist who shot to fame within the community with her documentary film, Strange Harvest, that investigated the increasing number of cattle mutilations, amongst others… revelations of names that made Faustian deals with the government and then spied on those they worked in the community with.

The waters become very murky, are they disseminating this information to cover up advanced technology they’ve invented, or spreading outlandish stories to hide what they do know and make those who share the stories sound foolish, or is there something more sinister going on? I like the fact that by film’s end you can draw your own conclusions, and there is still the evidence for and against…

And there are still those who want to believe blindly and adamantly that these things are real, are happening, and of course the government is spreading lies about it, but what if they aren’t lying, what if they are just releasing the truth and then because it seems so unbelievable that people laugh… hide the truth in plain sight.

I’m glad I’ve never been that far along.

Still, watching how these things were done, seeing that even Doty doesn’t even ‘know’ about all the things going on, especially when confronted about Project Serpo – think the ending of Close Encounters of the Third Kind – a selected group of people were allowed to go with the aliens to their home planet. Yet, others interviewed say they have material connecting that story right back to Doty.

Oh what a tangled web we weave, when we weave to deceive…

It’s a fascinating doc, that sheds a strong light into some of the corners of Ufology that the common viewer may not know about, and that shows the extremes to which a government will go to discredit, and fool the people.

The question through it all remains though…

Why?

This one is screening on Netflix, check it out!