Disclosure, but still no aliens

The Age of Disclosure arrives during a period of acute public interest in unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs), met by predictably cautious official pronouncements.

- KUMAR ABISHEK

Director Dan Farah, steeped in the cinematic mythology of E.T. and The X-Files from his growing up years in the 80s and ‘90s, presents his documentary not as conspiratorial froth but as a compilation of testimony from insiders who suggest the United States has quietly accumulated decades of information, and potentially material, suggesting nonhuman intelligence.

Mr Farah has stacked his cast with serious operators. The documentary pulls in 34 contributors, a mix of Congressional figures and longtime national security officers whose job descriptions usually keep them far from speculation. ‘Their presence gives the film an air of institutional weight that conspiracy fare normally lacks.

Jay Stratton, former director of the Pentagon's UAP Task Force, appears on camera to declare that he has seen with his eyes “nonhuman craft and nonhuman beings”. Eric Davis recalls the Soviet recovery of humanoid bodies in 1989. And Marco Rubio, US Secretary of State, warns that UAP intelligence is so tightly compartmentalised that “much of it is restricted even from presidents.”

In an era where every minor mishap is filmed in high definition grainy UFO videos have lost their sting. But those with decades of top-level security clearances are considerably harder to dismiss.