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#84 Randall Nickerson - Director of Ariel Phenomenon
400 Plays2 years ago
Randall Nickerson has been working in the film industry since 1987, first as a stage and film actor, before transitioning into cinematography, and ultimately into directing in 2001. After several short documentaries, Nickerson made the leap to his first feature-length film, Ariel Phenomenon.
Ariel Phenomenon explores an African extraterrestrial encounter witnessed by over sixty schoolchildren in 1994. As a Harvard professor, a BBC war reporter, and past students investigate, they struggle to answer the question: “What happens when you experience something so extraordinary that nobody believes you?”
Ariel Phenomenon Website: https://arielphenomenon.com/
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Ariel Phenomenon explores an African extraterrestrial encounter witnessed by over sixty schoolchildren in 1994. As a Harvard professor, a BBC war reporter, and past students investigate, they struggle to answer the question: “What happens when you experience something so extraordinary that nobody believes you?”
Ariel Phenomenon Website: https://arielphenomenon.com/
!! SUPPORT DISCLOSURE TEAM !!
Disclosure Team Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/disclosureteam
Disclosure Team PayPal: https://paypal.me/disclosureteam?coun...
Disclosure Team Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/disclosure_...
Disclosure Team Twitter: https://twitter.com/disclosureteam_
Disclosure Team is part of the Anomalous Podcast Network: https://audioboom.com/channels/5069292
DISCLAIMER:
FAIR USE NOTICE: This video MAY contain copyrighted material, the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Disclosure Team distributes this material for the purpose of news reporting, educational research, comment, and criticism, constituting Fair Use under 17 U.S.C § 107.
Intro music:
• Track Title: Cold Shoulder
• Beat by
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Anomalous Podcast Network
00:00:01
Speaker
You're listening to the Anomalous Podcast Network. Multiple voices, one phenomenon.
00:00:48
Speaker
Bye!
Welcome Back to Disclosure Team
00:00:50
Speaker
Welcome back, everybody, to the Disclosure Team YouTube channel. I'm your host, Vinny Adams. It's good to see everybody here in the live chat already. I'm really looking forward to this conversation.
Following the Aerial Case
00:01:01
Speaker
I've been following all the information of the aerial case since I first heard about it. Anyone familiar with my channel from last year, I interviewed Gunter Hofer, who was working with Cynthia Hind at the time and was on the scene following the case that same week.
00:01:19
Speaker
So, if you haven't heard that, I highly recommend you. Gunter is just a wealth of knowledge and information, as well as a lovely guy. So, go and check that out. But let's not waste any more time. Let's bring in my guest today. I would like to welcome and introduce Mr.
Introducing Randall Nickerson
00:01:34
Speaker
Randall Nickerson. Randall, how are you? Hi, great, Benny. Thank you so much for doing this. I really, really appreciate it. And I call out to Gunter. Yeah, I love what you said about Gunter. He's a really good man. Absolutely.
Randall's Filmmaking Journey
00:01:49
Speaker
So Randall, I think it'd be great if we could just start with a little bit of a background for yourself, you know, your career and how you got into filmmaking, if you don't mind. It started when I was a kid, actually. My mom gave me a camera, I think it was in fifth grade, and then she bought a really nice video camera. And when I was in like eighth grade for her,
00:02:12
Speaker
And I'm the one that ended up using it all the time. And I just shot and shot and shot in a lot of nature. Cause I was, I grew up in a log cabin out in the middle of hundreds of acres and across from my grandfather's farm. And anyway, I never, I love the camera. I love filming, you know, being able to not just only say, you know, see something, but be able to show the story to somebody else.
00:02:41
Speaker
Like, yeah, I really did encounter that bear. Here you go. You know, because people are like, yeah, yeah. Um, so that's, that was started it. And then I, uh, I started doing stand in work on films, big movies like mermaids and, um, school ties blown away, all that standing in for a lot of very well known people. And I learned.
00:03:07
Speaker
When you do stand-in work, you're around the camera a lot. Director and the lighting people are there. Director of photography is there as a camera. And I was like, God, I don't like this. And I went through a little rough time in my 20s. And I came back to it, and I started making really short films.
00:03:32
Speaker
you know, five minute films, fictional. And then I was down in New York City on 9-11, I was two blocks north when that happened. And I had my camera rolling. It was that moment that I said, I need to tell stories, real stories, not fictional stories, real stories. And that's that, because I, it was in that moment I felt, God, what do I have to give?
00:04:02
Speaker
You know, I saw, like many of my friends that were in the building, that were all around, we all had different experiences, but it changed all our lives. And that's really what started me to say, that's it, I'm making movies. To help, you know, to help us, I mean, when you see airplanes go into buildings, you realize something's wrong.
00:04:31
Speaker
situation somehow. Yeah, what an effect that must have had. Absolutely. And so when did string theory films come about? I think I had a company called string theory piano. So I was a pianist, tune pianos, repaired pianos, still do. That's I can do that anywhere in the world and focusing more on playing at the moment. And so
00:04:58
Speaker
And then it went to when I really decided I started string theory films. And the reason string theory, like I do understand some of the science of it, probably more than most, but it was the fact that everything's connected that really struck me. And I really believe it explains a lot. Yeah, absolutely.
The Aerial School Sighting Documentary
00:05:26
Speaker
So now, I mean, before we get into the actual media details of the story of the aerial school sighting, initially now, since the release, how has it been received? Are you happy? Has it exceeded expectations? Yeah. By a long shot. I mean, as far as people seeing and commenting and
00:05:48
Speaker
It just feels very good. I know that the witnesses and some of the teachers that have talked to me like what I did. And to me, that's important. If the people your subject matter is on are happy, that's the win for me. But it's doing well. We just found out we had a launch on May 9th.
00:06:17
Speaker
you know, what didn't go very well. So we had one it guy and one team, team look at it and then another team and they both told us we were hacked on May 19th. So that wasn't our fault. I can finally say that the paperwork and all that stuff, we'll be transparent about it. Um, but we're trying to trace it back to, uh, where it originated. Wow.
00:06:46
Speaker
That's unbelievable. I mean, I was following the release and everything and I saw the difficulties you encountered. But I knew it would be just something prosaic and normal and out of your control. So that's understandable. We were ready. I mean, that's what bothered me. And everybody was like, wait a second. How was it us? And then when we had these IT forensics guys look at all the logs and the
00:07:17
Speaker
the server itself, they found it. And so it was a kind of a surprise. I didn't expect that. I was thinking, oh, somebody on my team messed up and that wasn't it. So I don't know. All you can do is move through that stuff. But I do want to tell the public that somebody wanted that taken down. They wanted to make it very difficult for us
00:07:47
Speaker
and it got resolved. It got resolved and we're good. So obviously you released it independently.
Independent Film Release Challenges
00:07:54
Speaker
I just wondered what made you choose that route other than any of the other options, let's say. Well, I had some huge options. Sorry, my phone is... I had some huge options. I don't know how much I could speak about this.
00:08:13
Speaker
Uh, I had one with one of the biggest streamers and their, their originals department. So that went on, um, for about eight months and, uh, they wanted to make changes and. The changes they wanted to make, I did not agree with at all because they had nothing to do with the story.
00:08:39
Speaker
So that went and that went away. And then another very large movie company, one of the largest, I can't believe I told them, sorry, no, I can't believe that. Oh my God. But again, they were, they wanted to change the story. They didn't have a date of when it would be released. And I, in January, I said, that's it. That's it. That I'm putting this out myself.
00:09:10
Speaker
at great risk, to be honest, because of, I had, I mean, the money I was offered was, I wouldn't be panicking at all. I'd be in a good place and be like, okay, yeah. But it was, you know, they wanted to change something that was already good. You know, told in first person, no one else needed to be in that movie except the people that witnessed it.
00:09:35
Speaker
everybody's first person in the film and that's rare. It's no here stay, it's not enough. So it's been a struggle, you know, with the powers that be in the film world. But I'm hoping that's going to come around now that I've put it out and that it's doing well and that it
00:09:57
Speaker
people you know those people are seeing like well whatever this guy did it's working you know it works as a film and people are really taken per ride uh... and that's exciting so i expect things to change pretty quick i'm already seeing that the uh... i'm getting some calls and emails already so that's great so hopefully
00:10:20
Speaker
By August, it's gonna be everywhere. And that was the time to make this film, like get
Awareness of Unexplained Phenomena
00:10:26
Speaker
it out. I want everybody in the world to see this. Not for me, not for the money. It's just for the, do you guys understand this happened? You know, and it's not just one incident. This stuff has been happening a long time all over the globe. This is just one story. There's a lot more stories. So.
00:10:46
Speaker
that's great that's really good to hear and I think the one thing that stands out for me in this documentary is that it's not just a UFO documentary it's it's got everything in it it's beautiful it's moving you know I have a really supportive partner but we don't sit down together and watch UFO documentaries but with this one we did and she was blown away by it and I think that really just shows
00:11:07
Speaker
your work is you know and how great it was and like you said if it was changed by a big network or anything it may not have had that raw emotion or effect that it that it has got so you know i respect that your decisions an awful lot to not just go with the the big paycheck and stay true to the to the the kids i suppose more than anything it was it was true to the kids and true to the story yeah i appreciate that thank you and i i um
00:11:34
Speaker
Yeah, I do hope that reaches a lot of, and I didn't want to do a typical UFO film because it's its own genre. It's become its own genre. And that's like, well, why aren't we telling these real stories about people in the way we tell real stories about somebody that's in any other situation?
00:11:58
Speaker
You know, we treat it with a different way. And I wanted to say, let's do that with this. It's just as important. Why should we have this standard thing about UFO, the way to make a UFO movie? So I wanted to break that, not use a narrator.
00:12:16
Speaker
and tell it as if it's in real time and make the person feel like they're with these.
Documentary Storytelling Style
00:12:23
Speaker
It was all real. Every shot was like, it really happened. You didn't stage that, any of that. It was kind of run and gun, they call it, where you're trying to keep up with what's going on and you're hopefully not behind the people when it's happening. You try to want to, you got to get it in front, but you'll see a couple behind shots where it's like, ah,
00:12:47
Speaker
I'm behind them and I or behind Emily or behind somebody. I'm like, okay, damn it gotta move around. I did a lot of running not just me but Christopher too. He's been amazing as a story editor editor. Yeah, he's he's been great. Brilliant man went to high school with him. Wow. Yeah. So you bounce off each other well then?
00:13:21
Speaker
Yeah, we've got a lot of history. Good stuff. So let's jump back like 15 years or so. And when the aerial case first came on your radar, do you remember how that happened? John Mack, I believe it was his office.
00:13:39
Speaker
I keep remembering about that. Where was that? I think it was his office boardroom in his place. And he showed the video of these kids. And I'm like, caught my attention right away, just because they were telling the truth about something, for sure. And I didn't know too much about the incident or what happened.
00:14:05
Speaker
I listened to them. And then, yeah, it wasn't until 12 years later that I got the offer to tell the story. It was like, absolutely. And then it became bigger than I thought it was. You know, every time I found out something new about it, you know, more footage was out there. The BBC reporter, what?
00:14:30
Speaker
It just kept adding up. I'm like, Oh my God, this was huge. Like it affected a lot of people's lives. Um, parents, I mean, everybody around that area. Yes. I, yeah, I can't wait till more people go public and talk. Cause there's plenty of witnesses and not outside the school. Oh wow. Yeah. I had to cut all those people out of the movie to concentrate on Ariel.
00:15:00
Speaker
But there are a lot of witnesses that also saw this thing. So I have no problem with critics or debunkers. I don't care. Bring it. Yes. That's interesting. I just don't. And it's like, I've got so much in the can that whatever people bring up, if I need to say, I'm sorry, that's wrong. I got video. And not just that. Other things to prove it.
00:15:30
Speaker
Wow. That's good to have. It's good to know. I probably shouldn't let people know because they're going to say, who knows? But I'm not worried about critics. Sure, I understand. So tell us a bit more about John Mack. I mean, meeting the guy, it must have been something special. Can you talk about what he was like? And we'll hear about him and we read about him. But I'd love to know from someone that's
00:15:57
Speaker
Spent time with him what what he was like and how he how he rubbed off on you. Let's say um John he was a gentle Inquisitive man A Thinker a giant thinker you know, I'll never forget sitting in a room with him just talking with him and
00:16:22
Speaker
Looking at his eyes, I'm like, wow, this guy is brilliant. He's on another plane of intelligence. Yeah, he was a good man. And he took the fight. He put his whole life on the line. I'm not saying his family, relationships, friendships, he put everything on the line, his career.
00:16:52
Speaker
You know, when someone does that, it's hard to not respect that, you know, and honor that. Like no matter doesn't, I had disagreements with John too. You know, it's not like, you know, but I don't care. He did something that very few people do. Yeah. None of us will, he will.
00:17:21
Speaker
Absolutely. So, you know, let's talk about making the documentary. I'd love to hear some behind the scenes stories. If you could just, you know, regale us with some tales, that would be amazing.
Filming Challenges in Africa
00:17:37
Speaker
Well, my first trip, I was alone. And, well, no, I was alone for a long time, but I first went into the country with Mickey Carter, one of the other reporters. And that was in 08 when Zimbabwe was having
00:17:52
Speaker
you know, major political upheaval, I was warned by the State Department not to go into the country. And then I found out I wasn't supposed to be in the country at all. So we flew in, she was South African, I was American, and I had all this camera gear. And we spread it amongst all the bags, there was a lens over here, it wasn't like her pocketbook. And we went in like a couple, like we acted like a couple.
00:18:22
Speaker
When we landed at the airport, there's this guy in a business suit. I mean, thousands of dollars business suit, big gold watch, phone in his hand, and he followed us everywhere. And this was the CIO, which is basically their intelligence. And he stood behind us very close. We knew it was, they were trying to figure out who we were. And he stood so close behind us and we just played it. Nikki acted, I acted, because we had to.
00:18:53
Speaker
You know, we just played it like we're going on safari and Zimbabwe. And then we got out of the airport, it was fine. They didn't, nobody followed us out there and I stayed in a shack at this man named Jem. Jem, what an amazing man. He just passed away last year. They had this beautiful house and they had a room for me, but for some reason they put me in a shack.
00:19:21
Speaker
away from the house. And maybe that was for a reason. So if I got in trouble, they wouldn't be coming into, I don't know, but no hot water, no electricity, spiders all over the place. Oh my God. And then, uh, I mean, there's so many stories. It was a trip and that was trip one. And then driving around, I'll never forget. I'm driving down a two lane highway. It must be 15 feet across at night. Cause I did most of my driving around Africa at night.
00:19:50
Speaker
And there's this thing, looked like a fire hose going across one side of the highway to the other. And I came up with my low beams, and it's a snake. It was so big. From one side of the highway to the other, he was just warming himself on the tar. And then I got close, and that thing boogied. I don't even know how fast that, that thing was fast. It was probably a rock, rock python. That's the biggest ones in Africa.
00:20:20
Speaker
But man, I usually stop and look at snakes when I pass them. But that one was so big, I'm like, yeah, I'm not getting out of that car. No way. But man, there's stories after stories. Yeah. When I first got back from the first trip and I got back in 2009, or actually Christmas Day on 2008. But I didn't know if I was going to make it home. Really?
00:20:52
Speaker
I mean, because I had gone through so many things in Africa, you know, people trying to mug you, kill you, things happen. I ran into a lot of that and I really felt at a certain point like, I don't know when to leave and when's the right time to leave. And it was funny, this may sound strange, but I was photographing the clouds
00:21:15
Speaker
And I have this photograph. The photograph was an airplane. I mean, the cloud was in the shape of an airplane, extraordinarily odd cloud. And I was like, okay, I'm leaving. It's time to leave. And I did, and I made it. But when I got home, I was like, I didn't think I was going to make it back. I don't know if people understand what that's like, but when you're in a country's
00:21:40
Speaker
You worry about your life. It's not like flying in to have a vacation. I'm staying in villages, shacks, all kinds of different places. And that stuff happens. Great people, though. I love the African people, but there is a criminal element that is disturbing. Yeah, sure. That's really fascinating. Can I tell you one more?
00:22:08
Speaker
Please quick. So I landed in Johannesburg, which is like one of the cat murder capitals of the world. Yeah. And they drove me to where I was staying. And there was a 12 foot fence ball around the whole place with razor wire on top. And then I saw the guy with the machine gun out front. And I'm like, it was, he had an M4. I'm like, I am not in America anymore. Oh my God. And I, you know,
00:22:37
Speaker
It was at that time, it's like, it scared me. And I was like, I don't, I might wanna go home. Seriously, I really had to consider like, I either do this or I don't. And if I do this, I'm gonna have to buck up, you know, and really figure out how to survive there. Because it is quite dangerous when you have, when you need guarding like that,
00:23:04
Speaker
you got criminal, there's got to be a criminal element that's pretty heavy duty, which I found out later. But anyway, I'll stop talking. No, no, that's fascinating. I love these firsthand experiences. Yeah, it really is amazing.
Witness Interviews from Aerial School Event
00:23:20
Speaker
But I'd love to know about the process of tracking down the witnesses and how that was for you, whether it was, you know, you had any roadblocks along the way and just the general, you know, trying to get them all together.
00:23:33
Speaker
Yeah, well, um, the first thing I did was, uh, my space at the time where I had help from the Jared family. Um, and they also helped me set up a, a, a, a page for Facebook. And a lot of people were on Facebook, which I mean, it just kind of really started taking off at that point. Um,
00:24:01
Speaker
And I tell you, if it wasn't for that platform, I probably wouldn't have found most of them. But that's how I initially started doing it. And then they were hearing, who's this guy making a story about our story? It was very interesting, some people's attitudes. It was great, though. And then I started getting, you know, they started contacting me. And I'm still getting contacted by kids that were there who finally,
00:24:30
Speaker
found out, because some people are living in the Western world at all. They don't even have computers. I found that when trying to track a few down myself for interviews, and they are, they scatter literally all four corners of the globe. I love it at the least, yeah. So true. So do you think with these, you say you've still got them coming forward, could we see an extended version of the film in the future with extra scenes with new witnesses?
00:25:00
Speaker
Well, the film was, you know, we had a four hour rough cut when we started and we had to whittle it down, whittle it down, whittle it down. So the version that I wanted to put out was two hours, 12 minutes, something like that. But nobody would take a two hour, 12 minute movie. You know what I mean?
00:25:21
Speaker
I had to get it down, it's 90 minutes is the standard. So I'm over that by eight minutes, but that's fine. I had to get into that certain area where, you know, you have people's attention. That's when they start to lose attention is after 90 minutes, unless it's really good. And then so yeah, the director's cut still exists. So we already did it. It's just a longer version.
00:25:47
Speaker
And we're going to look at it again just to see how we can make it better, even better, and put more into it. But yeah, that'll be a worthy watch because there's just so many great things that we had to cut. We had hundreds and hundreds of hours of footage. It was 400 and then another 200 in B-roll. So we had a huge amount of films. Most films have 100 hours, 200 hours. We had about 600.
00:26:17
Speaker
Wow. That's incredible. I'd certainly watch. I'd watch, easily watch for five hours of it. I can tell you right now. It is fascinating. Just watching all the archival back to back to back to back, you're like, oh, I know that kid. That's that kid. You know, I had to figure out who was who. I had pictures and I was like, OK, drawings, whose drawings is this?
00:26:42
Speaker
you know, all this cross-referencing to figure out who was who, subtleties in their language, something, you know, they talked about a tuck shop. I didn't understand what that was. You know what it is, right? I do, yeah. We have them at school here. Oh, that's what they call it in England as well? Yeah, yeah. Oh, didn't know that. Yeah. So there was, and there was another word for carpool that I didn't understand what they were even talking about.
00:27:10
Speaker
And I finally figured that out. But yeah, this language things that happens. That's amazing. Now, there was one point, wasn't there, in the making of this where, and maybe before the making, but where there was rumor that the school had burned down. Can you
Debunking Aerial School Rumors
00:27:28
Speaker
talk about that and how it must have felt deflating? Oh, yeah.
00:27:33
Speaker
Yeah, I had no hope after a little while I was after I got max footage and started looking at that and like, how am I going to make a movie with just this stuff? You know, it's not enough. So I tried to track down the school and people told me it was burnt down, that it had been abandoned. That's no longer a school anymore over and over. And
00:27:58
Speaker
And then I don't know how I got in touch or we got in touch. Somebody gave me the name. And I think I called her. She was a reporter, Nikki Carter in South Africa. And she said, yeah, it's still there. There's three teachers that are still there. From 1994, my nephew went. I'm like, you got to be kidding me.
00:28:19
Speaker
And I was like, very next day I booked my flight. And then I, you know, it took like two months to prepare. Like I had to pack my gear. I had to look, I didn't want to draw too much attention. And then I got on the plane and I realized, oh yeah, I am not prepared for this at all. Everybody on the plane's warning me like, you need to be careful in this country. Really careful over and over and over on the plane.
00:28:47
Speaker
But, uh, and then I just, when I got on the ground, I just bought their clothes that they wore. So I wouldn't stand out and their shoes. Like I just didn't want to stand out. But, um, but yeah, the, anyway, I'll stop talking again. No, no, please. I love it. I really do. I can keep going on, but yeah. Did I answer your question?
00:29:10
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. This is the thing, and I said this before we came on, that wherever this conversation goes, if it goes on a tangent, that's absolutely great. I love those organic conversations, so please don't worry about talking too much. People are here to listen to you. I just wanted to talk about this part of the story which I've heard here and there.
00:29:36
Speaker
there was supposedly a uranium mine nearby, and this is what these beings may well have been doing in that location. Are you able to talk about that to any degree? How did that get out? I can't remember, to be honest. That's really interesting. There's somebody else that can speak to that. I'd rather not say anything.
00:30:06
Speaker
to say that person will, he's got a lot more credibility than I do. And I hope he shares it with the world, but it's interesting. I did look at that when it was brought up to me, but it's not my story. I don't know. It makes sense though.
00:30:31
Speaker
in the larger picture, if that's the case, which I do, God, this is hard. How do I tell things and not tell things at the same time? It's tricky to not violate people's confidence, not step on their additions to the story, which are from their own work and their own investigations.
00:31:00
Speaker
But yeah, that whole nuclear thing is very interesting. They seem to be very focused around that stuff. And it seems like a message. I don't know. Yeah, absolutely. That's fair enough. I won't push you too far. I understand you have to keep certain things to yourself and not divulge things if people have told you things in confidence, or they're not ready to talk about their work. That's fully understandable. So we can move on.
Acknowledging Gunther Hofer
00:31:28
Speaker
Yeah.
00:31:30
Speaker
I just want to give a shout out because Gunther's here right now. Oh my God. What an amazing man Gunther is. He's brilliant. I just, you know, humble and very wise. And I loved our conversations. He makes, he made me think, you know, on a deeper level about things. And obviously he had thought a lot out over the years that takes a long time.
00:32:00
Speaker
Yeah, I hope he's doing well with his wife and son, right? I think it's his son, his child. I know he had a child. Yeah.
00:32:14
Speaker
Gunter, you're going to get another message from me soon because it's about time you came back on for the third time, man. It's always, always a great conversation. So listen, let's go a bit down the speculative route. I mean, you must over the years have theorized about what these beings might have been and the messages that they may be bringing. So are you able to talk on maybe if that's changed over the years and maybe where it lies now with you?
00:32:46
Speaker
Yeah, I went on a long journey, I guess, with that whole thing, feeling like I still cannot say no. I definitely have evolved my perspective. And that came largely due to traveling all over the world, flying all over the world, myself.
00:33:16
Speaker
and then not literally, but just flying and being above the ground and looking at our planet and looking at things and taking pictures of things from the air. Yeah, I mean, I think people have gotten into this argument about they're good or bad or, you know, malignant, benign, evil, good, you know, I just don't wanna go, it's just not about that.
00:33:45
Speaker
You know, I don't think that's what we're looking at. I think we're looking at an extremely evolved species. I mean, God only knows how long they've been around.
Evolved Species and Earth's Biosphere
00:34:01
Speaker
And I think they look at this planet as something rather unique, not the only one, of course, but
00:34:12
Speaker
unique as a biosphere full of full of all kinds of life that are unique to this solar system. That's my feeling like that they're not that they're concerned about the planet itself and what it supports, not just human beings. That's where I've come to. And I and I and that makes sense to me when I
00:34:34
Speaker
think about all the people I've talked with and all the things I've learned from those people, all the events that I'm aware of, there's a very consistent, they're not, they don't seem to be, they seem to be being very careful and very kind of, you know, you call it covert, but I mean, it's, when you tame, we're an untamed species,
00:35:02
Speaker
And we don't even know that. We're wild animals, because we haven't had a higher order species interact with us. So that higher order species, like when we go to tame an animal, is going to take its time. That's the only way to do it. It takes a long time. And they're dealing with a colony of human beings, a whole bunch of them. So I'm just saying my current thought. That's great.
00:35:30
Speaker
But what it seems like is they're taking their time. They don't want to freak us out, but they want us to change. And I don't understand. I think we need to know why they're here and what their intentions are. I think it's really important for us. We don't know. We've only seen what they've
00:35:52
Speaker
what's been available. There's tons more and we can make educated decisions the more data we have. So that's, I am for that. We need, we need that much. And it's happening. That's what I can't believe. Like, Oh my God, you know, NASA starts their UFO program. Yep. You heard what Tim said today, that astronaut from England. Oh yes.
00:36:20
Speaker
Yeah, been discussing it all day with some of my colleagues. It's because he spoke only a month or two ago. And he came at it from a bit more of a skeptical viewpoint. And it seems like he's now becoming more comfortable talking about it, which is amazing.
00:36:35
Speaker
That's great. That's the way it's going to go. The more people that are willing to take the risk, the more people will follow that. And there's plenty of people out there. And a lot of the guys, you know, they're pilots, military pilots. They're like hardcore jobs that people trust their lives with these people. They're not. They don't make this stuff up. They have no reason to do so. And they've seen a lot. Yeah. Yeah. And I love it. Bring them. Anybody, please come. You know, if you
00:37:05
Speaker
if this is probably the best time ever you're going to get to come forward and we it's going to shift we got to make this transition to say all right they're out there and you go to africa you know they think you're crazy if you don't think there's anything out there yeah they really do they they uh i remember standing next to this guy and he you know i asked him he was in in one of the villages and
00:37:32
Speaker
We were staring at the sky and he said, do you think, I said to him, do you think there's anything out there? And he said, he looked at me like really strange. And he was like, of course, he thought I was insane to even say that. Anyways, it's funny. So many stories.
00:37:50
Speaker
I guess you must have obviously looked at some of the other school cases. I know in a recent interview you mentioned that you actually went out to Wales to investigate the Broadhaven case.
Broadhaven Witness Reluctance
00:38:00
Speaker
Am I right in saying that they were not comfortable with coming forward?
00:38:05
Speaker
No, they were not. I spoke to three of them privately and wanted to do an on-camera. I did go to the library and I recovered all their drawings. There was a library across from Broadhaven that has all their drawings. That was important to me as how it compared to Ariel. But they all told me it happened for real and they were just
00:38:33
Speaker
They don't, it had already caused so much trouble in their lives. They just didn't think there was gonna be anything good to come from them being on camera anymore. I guess you have to respect that.
00:38:47
Speaker
in the UFO community, we probably, you know, we just want as many people to come forward. But we, you know, I always try and take a step back and imagine that the ridicule and the stigma they must have been through for the 40 plus years since it happened, you know, is that something that you've seen change during the filming of, you know, 15 years of making Ariel? Have you seen that stigma change?
00:39:08
Speaker
Yes, I have. I mean, you think about when whales happened. That was, I think, 76. 77. 77. I mean, it was really rough back then. The people in the 80s, they had it a slightly little better. The 90s, maybe a little bit more. And then now, I mean, ever since that New York Times article and the Pentagon stuff,
00:39:36
Speaker
things have began, begun to shift in sort of a fat at a faster pace. Um, so yeah, I've seen, I've seen, they were diagnosing people in the seventies as schizophrenic if they had seen something like this and then they moved it to another psychological, you know, um, manifestation and, and it just went on and on and on. I don't think we got one now, you know,
00:40:05
Speaker
Not that everybody's healthy in the field, but I think we're in a good place. And one of the things that keeps a lot of people from coming out, I can tell you that, is the conference, the sort of, I don't know, the hype of it all. They just don't wanna, that's not their forum.
00:40:34
Speaker
You know, they want to come out in a session of Congress or something like that. That's how a lot of people think. So you won't see any of those people at anything. You don't even know their names, you know? It's like, you may. Who knows? I don't know. We all meet these people that just want to be quiet, you know? Even though they could come out and make a big difference because of who they are.
00:41:06
Speaker
I've got a great question here from Wilford. He asks, what made the most impact personally making the film? Finishing it in one way. Man, I was impacted by so many things. Being able to capture it while it was happening.
00:41:35
Speaker
in real time and to be able to be in these kids' lives and have them trust me, that I wasn't going to exploit them or hurt them in that way at all. Yeah, I felt honored that they trusted me and they allowed me to film. It was such a delicate environment, which is why I didn't want any crew with me.
00:42:05
Speaker
because I knew it was a one-on-one conversation. You start to put people in the room. It changes everything. You don't get good interviews with a lot of equipment. You get good interviews with a lot of eye contact and trust building. So some of my shots are lacking a certain lighting or whatever, but it's more powerful to see truth.
00:42:30
Speaker
Truth, man, wrong track. They got to go back to truth because that sells. Absolutely. I love that raw feel to some of those scenes were moving because of the fact that it wasn't just a big set up lit set. It was pure organic and real. So I felt it. Definitely.
00:42:54
Speaker
That's great. Jay Allen's got a great question here. Have there been any follow-ups to the events? Were there any kind of hitchhiker type events following? And then any ongoing events this day with these beings? With that, with the kids? Yeah, I've experienced any, I suppose, effects since the incident and lived with any kind of, you know, we talk about the hitchhiker effect where strange things happen to people that have been witnessed to UFO sightings.
00:43:24
Speaker
I wondered if any of the kids have talked about anything strange still occurring in their lives during your time knowing them. They have. They have asked me not to speak about it. Yeah. I can respect that. I don't know how widespread it is, but I can think of a few that I know. I haven't even got that because I got there with them because they haven't even got there with that.
00:43:52
Speaker
You know what I mean? So I have to start with Ariel, where it all started. And yeah, I just I can't wait to have start having them on, you know, on with me or on their own. Because it's their story, they can tell you better than I can. I mean, I know, actually, my value is I did all the research and did all the, you know, I know when things happen in what order and all that.
00:44:21
Speaker
So that's where I'm helpful when they're on. It's like, no, no, that was before they went out the first time. No, that was after they ran in and told the teachers. Anyway, there's this, it was a whole event. I went on for 10, 15 minutes. It's a long time. You also mentioned there were other sightings.
00:44:41
Speaker
outside of the school because we know there was some rocket reentry or talk of a rocket reentry around that week, but was there also other UFO sightings as well? Is there anything you can tell us about that without breaking any trust or promises? Sure. According to what was a strategic air command at the time, there was a Russian, Russia launched the spy satellite in August 27th, 26th, 27th of the month before.
00:45:10
Speaker
And a rocket body, it's our 53A I believe is the number, because I did a whole FOIA to the Strategic Air Command, which is now another organization.
00:45:26
Speaker
I did, yes, that and got that information. Oddly, that booster was not on that list. But I do know that it probably did come over Africa on that Wednesday. But that was not what everybody saw. Sure. I mean, that, you know, booster or rocket reentry, I've seen him before.
00:45:49
Speaker
It's pretty straight line, it arcs over the sky, but it's pretty consistent, the breakup, little pieces. But when you talk to a lot of the people that were there, they talk about something that happened earlier that made turns.
00:46:11
Speaker
You know, that was close to the ground. That was silver. That was in a disc shape. That wasn't that thing. And that kept happening over and over. I'm like, wow, okay. Well, good cover. Do it right after reentry where you can just, you know, oh yeah, that was a reentry. No, there was, and then the pilots, there were multiple pilots that saw that thing, not just on Wednesday,
00:46:38
Speaker
But on Thursday, it went on, this whole thing went on. You know how they call these things waves, UFO waves or whatever? I've heard that in my country. And it's where they show up in one location for about a week. And that seems to be what happened there. There's multiple experiences. And I haven't found them all by far. That's fascinating. Sorry.
00:47:07
Speaker
Just having a bit of a technical issue here. There we go. I thought you were watching YouTube or something on the side. No, one of the guys in the chat has asked where he can watch Aerial Phenomenon in the UK. I think if you just go to aerialphenomenon.com, am I right? That's right. Yeah. We got it all smoothed out now. Yeah. Excellent. I thought I had another question here. No, I didn't. So I'm going to go back to my questions.
00:47:35
Speaker
What I found quite interesting was that you recently attended the SCU conference in Huntsville, Alabama. How
SCU Conference Experience
00:47:41
Speaker
was that? I mean, I saw a photo of you with Colonel John Alexander. Can you tell us any stories about people you met, any conversations that without going into too much personal private information, how was it? It was great. And all I can really say is it's just amazing to see the right people getting involved finally.
00:48:04
Speaker
Like I couldn't believe, I can't believe some of the people on meeting. It's just incredible. And there's also that thank God, thank God, here they are. Cause they're here, the right people are here. Brilliant scientists, Navy, Air Force, Army, like the best of the best.
00:48:32
Speaker
And I'm excited about that. I had some just incredible conversations in the last 10 days. I can't say anything at all. Of course, of course. I understand. I had to ask, you know, it's OK. And I'm not trying to say whatever. It's just no, no, I totally understand that. But wow. I mean, I saw some of the names of the people and photographs of people just at that conference and it was a who's who of
00:49:00
Speaker
of the whole community and yeah I'd love to have been there so but no I appreciate you you know yeah the most exciting was to see a lot of highly educated physicists and the real the big minds that were there and I watched I didn't really watch too many of the presentations well I did but
00:49:27
Speaker
Not all of them. But when I watched, I was like, you know what? I think these guys got it. They're on the right track. They're doing everything the way it's supposed to be done, scientific method, which is great. Love it. And they're just doing it. And it's the right group of people. So I feel like SCU is the only conference I go to. Because I'm only interested in the people that can solve it. And they have the tools.
00:49:57
Speaker
They got the tools. That's what we need is access to those satellites, access to the platforms where we can document this stuff and learn more. Fascinating. Great question here coming in from Christopher Plain. Chris, good to see you, my friend. Was there anything in Randall's research that caught him by surprise? Putting you on the spot here. Yeah.
00:50:28
Speaker
I don't know if I can share this. We won't tell anyone. It was when I went into the, I was like, well, I knew Zimbabwe had, you know, had radar at this time. It was definitely South Africa. South Africa is kind of the big, biggest military power south of Egypt. So I went into the Air Force Base. I'm like, I'm going in. I'm going to ask him.
00:50:58
Speaker
And so I went in, talked to this guy. He was the commander of the base. He brought, and I said, you know, I've seen some stuff and to hear about the aerial case. And he brought me into his office with a female lieutenant colonel.
Military UFO Radar Sightings
00:51:14
Speaker
And he, we said, we went in his office and he said, yeah, we see him all the time. And I said, what? And I was like, can I record this? I was hitting my camera.
00:51:28
Speaker
in a bag hanging off one of my small cameras for just this thing. And he said, no. And what was interesting is he said, we see him on radar all the time. And he said, what are you doing in this country? Why are you asking me this? Oh, this is your country. They're in charge of this stuff.
00:51:53
Speaker
And I was like, what do you mean? It's like, well, they, they've been working on this. I was like, okay, interesting. He said a few things to me and I followed up on those things, but it came from another military who told me quite a bit. That was surprising. I walked in there figuring he was going to say, get out of here. He's like, no, we see him on the radar all the time.
00:52:23
Speaker
at crazy speeds. Didn't expect that. No, I'd imagine not. That's me by surprise. There you go, Chris. I hope that answered your question because that's amazing. Thank you so much for telling us that. I will go to this question by Jay Allen because I'm interested
Thoughts on Congressional UFO Hearings
00:52:43
Speaker
in this too. Do you have any comments on the recent congressional hearings? For example, they seem to
00:52:51
Speaker
the very basic, easily dismissed events. I just wondered if you had any overall thoughts on the hearings. It's never been done before, which wasn't perfect. I would have liked a lot more time allotted for that conversation. I think they opened the door to this. I really believe that this is not the last time that's going to happen.
00:53:22
Speaker
And a lot of the things are happening behind closed doors at the minority report meetings, which, you know, it's just the, they don't tell us that stuff, but that's where the real stuff gets discussed. So I don't know, it was kind of a, I can't believe that whole thing with the video. Are you kidding me? Dude, I could have done that on my iPhone. I think a lot of us could.
00:53:49
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, wow. I wonder if that guy still has a job. He just labeled the Navy look pretty bad and the Navy is not. The Navy's got their stuff together in general. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, that was funny. But I'm just glad that finally, again, finally, finally, let's get to it. Yeah, let's figure it out. We need to figure it out as soon as possible. That's my perspective. Let's find out.
00:54:19
Speaker
deal with it. Absolutely. Right. Well, I've come to the bottom of my question list. I have one final question, which is, do you have any plans or thoughts on doing another documentary maybe on UFOs or are you working on anything at the moment? Before I started Ariel, I was doing a documentary on Bud Hopkins before he died. Right. Well, I shot for probably three years and I made a 16 minute shortcut
00:54:49
Speaker
just to, you know, a sampler. And then Ariel came and I just took off on that. So I have a whole movie in the can about Bud, a whole nother movie about other people in Africa that witnessed, a hundred witnesses at least, that I interviewed on the side. Like, cause these people would say, yeah, I saw something. I'm like, would you be willing to talk about it on camera? And they did.
00:55:14
Speaker
So there's that, and there's another story that I, that's in Africa that I really want to do. And- You were able to tell us about that? I can't. If I say anything, someone's going to do it. I need a good six months off before I go back in there and do that one. That one's going to be tough, but amazing. It's another amazing story that hasn't been told. There's so many stories out there. Yeah.
00:55:45
Speaker
The best ones kind of have been scrubbed, you know, but I got this
00:55:51
Speaker
Cynthia Heimberg, UFOs. Fascinating. Shout out to Gunter again who sent me this. I mean, some incredible cases in this book. I'd recommend it to people, but it's very expensive to find. We're hard to find now. I heard the MIT conference book. Remember they had the MIT conference in 1992? Right. Yeah, they had it at MIT about the subject matter. The textbook was this thick.
00:56:20
Speaker
textbook which I have one because I was there what is worth a thousand dollars Wow I mean I'm not surprised I'm not surprised at all just crazy but yeah
00:56:39
Speaker
I mean, I've come to the end of the interview. I could hang out and do this all day long, to be honest. It's such a good conversation. It's good to just relax and be myself and not try to talk to anything. That's what I wanted. And I'm so happy with this conversation. So I cannot thank you enough. And I think I got to thank my crew and all the supporters and the kids and their parents and the teachers and everybody. So many people helped make this happen.
00:57:07
Speaker
It wouldn't have happened without that. Yeah, 100%. Well, thank you again. Thank you to everybody in the live chat. Thank you for the questions. If you haven't seen aerial phenomenon, please, I cannot recommend it enough. You will not be disappointed. Show it to your friends and family. They will enjoy it too. But yeah.
00:57:29
Speaker
Thank you guys. I'm going to be back in about 10 days time. I'm having a short vacation next weekend for my partner's birthday. So, uh, yep, a little delay there, but guys, thank you so much for watching. Uh, have a great rest of your day and I'll see you on the next one. Take care. Goodbye. You're listening to the anomalous podcast network, multiple voices, one phenomenon.