Latest news with #TheAgeofDisclosure
Yahoo
12-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘80 years of lies and deception': is this film proof of alien life on Earth?
A splashy new documentary that asserts the presence of extraterrestrial life on Earth and alleges a US government effort to hide information on possible alien activity is making waves at SXSW. The Age of Disclosure expounds upon years of congressional activity and testimony surrounding the presence of Unexplained Anomalous Phenomena (or UAP, a rebranding of the stigmatized UFO), in the United States, drawing both buzz and skepticism at the Austin, Texas-based cultural festival. Related: 'It's not a question of belief': the film examining government UFO records The film, directed by Dan Farah, features 34 military and intelligence veterans with direct knowledge of or experience with UAPs. All testify to the presence of alien flying objects and, for some, extraterrestrial beings on Earth. Some also allege a government cover-up of supposedly paradigm-shifting information – an effort that the film's lead subject, Luis Elizondo, a member of the government's Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), deemed 'the most successful disinformation campaign in the history of the US government', representing '80 years of lies and deception'. A bipartisan group of government officials, including the former senator for Florida and Trump's new secretary of state, Marco Rubio; the Democratic New York senator Kirsten Gillibrand; and the Republican South Dakota senator Mike Rounds, also call for more transparency on the subject, citing their personal experience struggling to access any information on UAPs. All participants, according to the film, disclose as much information as they lawfully can – which isn't that much in terms of hard evidence, as several critics have noted. As IndieWire put it, The Age of Disclosure presents 'the most convincing argument you can make without showing any actual evidence'. The Hollywood Reporter's Daniel Fienberg dismissed it as a 'a basic cable exploitation doc done up with a fancy gloss', in which 'nothing is proven, and thus nothing can be refuted'. But it is still the most serious and sourced documentary on the government's handling of UAP information to date, surveying years of growing public interest in the subject even as it proclaims, in Elizondo's words, 'the greatest paradigm shift in human history'. The Age of Disclosure is 'the most historic documentary ever made on this topic', said a key participant, Jay Stratton, a defense intelligence agency official and director of the government's UAP taskforce, during a post-screening Q&A at the festival's marquee Paramount Theatre. 'This is a very real situation, and the stakes are incredibly high, and it's clearly the most bipartisan issue of our time – leaders from both political parties made it clear to me how serious it is,' said Farah, a producer on Steven Spielberg's Ready Player One and the 2020 UFO doc The Phenomenon, during the Q&A. 'But the public has no idea. The average person on the street is just completely in the dark.' The film opens with a montage of subjects – ex-military and intelligence veterans, many of whom have testified under oath before Congress – stating for the record: 'We are not alone.' Though it entertains fantastical ideas that drew audible gasps from the audience – speculation of extraterrestrial life hiding in the unmapped depths of the ocean, discussions on theoretical time-space bending alien technology that would absolve humanity of fossil fuels – The Age of Disclosure builds on legitimate reporting on government programs. Such reporting starts with a buzzy 2017 New York Times report on the existence of AATIP, which investigated UFO reports from deep within the Pentagon. (Elizondo and several other film participants, including the former deputy assistant secretary of defense for intelligence Christopher Mellon and the AATIP consulting physicist Harold Puthoff, served as named sources for the article.) In 2020, the Times confirmed AATIP's continued existence as a renamed Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon Task Force within the office of naval intelligence, precipitating an official government inquiry into the subject. Public interest led to several Pentagon reports confirming hundreds of UAP sightings by military personnel, as well as the launch of an official Pentagon online reporting tool. Last fall, Elizondo and several other film participants testified before Congress that the government conducted a secret UFO retrieval program – though the hearing lacked any direct evidence to support the claims. That followed a blockbuster congressional hearing in July 2023, in which the whistleblower David Grusch, who led analysis of UAP within a US defense agency, told lawmakers that the US government possessed non-human 'biologics' and spacecraft. 'I was informed, in the course of my official duties, of a multi-decade UAP crash retrieval and reverse-engineering program, to which I was denied access,' he told the committee, again without direct evidence. The Age of Disclosure faces a similar hurdle: lots of talk of what certain people have seen that is too classified or too sensitive to actually detail and thus impossible to prove. Some participants decline to speculate on aliens, instead sticking to what is unknown. 'It could be China, it could be Russia, it could be any adversary,' said Gillibrand of UAP sightings. Rubio warned against a failure of imagination over the capabilities of any US adversary, human or non-human. Both expressed national security concerns over the presence of UAPs in the US airspace – a rare point of agreement. Other participants detail their personal experience witnessing a UAP event, such as Alex Dietrich, a navy lieutenant commander who has spoken publicly about seeing the so-called 'Tic Tac object' during a flight off the coast of San Diego in 2004. The mysterious object appeared to have no wings, markings or exhaust plumes; naval radar detected that it could turn on a dime, and descended 80,000ft in less than a second. And still others, such as Puthoff and the astrophysicist Eric Davis, confidently assert the reality of extraterrestrial interference on earth, with many alleged sightings around US nuclear facilities – though, again, without documentation. Elizondo and Stratton also briefly address a 2019 report by the Intercept questioning Elizondo's expertise, finding 'no discernible evidence that Luis Elizondo ever worked for a government UFO program, much less led one'. The two dismiss the report as a government attempt to discredit Elizondo through disinformation. The former CIA officer Jim Semivan, a 25-year veteran of the senior intelligence service, called the larger alleged government suppression tactics and siloing of information a 'tradition of disbelief'. Provocative and controversial as the claims are, the film-makers left the question of next steps to the audience, with an explicit call to demand more information from lawmakers they say are also kept in the dark. 'Push your representatives, push the executive branch, push the president to make this come to light, make the transparency happen, so the world can understand what we've been dealing with is real,' said Stratton. 'We are not alone.' The Age of Disclosure is screening at the SXSW film festival and will be released later this year
The Guardian
12-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘80 years of lies and deception': is this film proof of alien life on Earth?
A splashy new documentary that asserts the presence of extraterrestrial life on Earth and alleges a US government effort to hide information on possible alien activity is making waves at SXSW. The Age of Disclosure expounds upon years of congressional activity and testimony surrounding the presence of Unexplained Anomalous Phenomena (or UAP, a serious rebranding of the stigmatized UFO), in the United States, drawing both buzz and skepticism at the Austin, Texas-based cultural festival. The film, directed by Dan Farah, features 34 military and intelligence veterans with direct knowledge of or experience with UAPs. All testify to the presence of alien flying objects and, for some, extraterrestrial beings on earth. Some also allege a government cover-up of supposedly paradigm-shifting information – an effort that the film's lead subject, Luis Elizondo, a member of the government's Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), deemed 'the most successful disinformation campaign in the history of the US government', representing '80 years of lies and deception'. A bipartisan group of government officials, including the former senator for Florida and Trump's new secretary of state, Marco Rubio; the Democratic New York senator Kirsten Gillibrand; and the Republican South Dakota senator Mike Rounds, also call for more transparency on the subject, citing their personal experience struggling to access any information on UAPs. All participants, according to the film, disclose as much information as they lawfully can – which isn't that much in terms of hard evidence, as several critics have noted. As IndieWire put it, The Age of Disclosure presents 'the most convincing argument you can make without showing any actual evidence'. The Hollywood Reporter's Daniel Fienberg dismissed it as a 'a basic cable exploitation doc done up with a fancy gloss', in which 'nothing is proven, and thus nothing can be refuted'. But it is still the most serious and sourced documentary on the government's handling of UAP information to date, surveying years of growing public interest in the subject even as it proclaims, in Elizondo's words, 'the greatest paradigm shift in human history'. The Age of Disclosure is 'the most historic documentary ever made on this topic,' said a key participant, Jay Stratton, a defense intelligence agency official and director of the government's UAP taskforce, during a post-screening Q&A at the festival's marquee Paramount Theatre. 'This is a very real situation, and the stakes are incredibly high, and it's clearly the most bipartisan issue of our time – leaders from both political parties made it clear to me how serious it is,' said Farah, a producer on Steven Spielberg's Ready Player One and the 2020 UFO doc The Phenomenon, during the Q&A. 'But the public has no idea. The average person on the street is just completely in the dark.' The film opens with a montage of subjects – ex-military and intelligence veterans, many of whom have testified under oath before Congress – stating for the record: 'We are not alone.' Though it entertains fantastical ideas that drew audible gasps from the audience – speculation of extraterrestrial life hiding in the unmapped depths of the ocean, discussions on theoretical time-space bending alien technology that would absolve humanity of fossil fuels – The Age of Disclosure builds on legitimate reporting on government programs. Such reporting starts with a buzzy 2017 New York Times report on the existence of AATIP, which investigated UFO reports from deep within the Pentagon. (Elizondo and several other film participants, including the former deputy assistant secretary of defense for intelligence Christopher Mellon and the AATIP consulting physicist Harold Puthoff, served as named sources for the article.) In 2020, the Times confirmed AATIP's continued existence as a renamed Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon Task Force within the office of naval intelligence, precipitating an official government inquiry into the subject. Public interest led to several Pentagon reports confirming hundreds of UAP sightings by military personnel, as well as the launch of an official Pentagon online reporting tool. Last fall, Elizondo and several other film participants testified before Congress that the government conducted a secret UFO retrieval program – though the hearing lacked any direct evidence to support the claims. That followed a blockbuster congressional hearing in July 2023, in which the whistleblower David Grusch, who led analysis of UAP within a US defense agency, told lawmakers that the US government possessed non-human 'biologics' and spacecraft. 'I was informed, in the course of my official duties, of a multi-decade UAP crash retrieval and reverse-engineering program, to which I was denied access,' he told the committee, again without direct evidence. The Age of Disclosure faces a similar hurdle: lots of talk of what certain people have seen that is too classified or too sensitive to actually detail and thus impossible to prove. Some participants decline to speculate on aliens, instead sticking to what is unknown. 'It could be China, it could be Russia, it could be any adversary,' said Gillibrand of UAP sightings. Rubio warned against a failure of imagination over the capabilities of any US adversary, human or non-human. Both expressed national security concerns over the presence of UAPs in the US airspace – a rare point of agreement. Other participants detail their personal experience witnessing a UAP event, such as Alex Dietrich, a navy lieutenant commander who has spoken publicly about seeing the so-called 'Tic Tac object' during a flight off the coast of San Diego in 2004. The mysterious object appeared to have no wings, markings or exhaust plumes; naval radar detected that it could turn on a time, and descended 80,000ft in less than a second. And still others, such as Puthoff and the astrophysicist Eric Davis, confidently assert the reality of extraterrestrial interference on earth, with many alleged sightings around US nuclear facilities – though, again, without documentation. Elizondo and Stratton also briefly address a 2019 report by the Intercept questioning Elizondo's expertise, finding 'no discernible evidence that Luis Elizondo ever worked for a government UFO program, much less led one'. The two dismiss the report as a government attempt to discredit Elizondo through disinformation. The former CIA officer Jim Semivan, a 25-year veteran of the senior intelligence service, called the larger alleged government suppression tactics and siloing of information a 'tradition of disbelief'. Provocative and controversial as the claims are, the film-makers left the question of next steps to the audience, with an explicit call to demand more information from lawmakers they say are also kept in the dark. 'Push your representatives, push the executive branch, push the president to make this come to light, make the transparency happen, so the world can understand what we've been dealing with is real,' said Stratton. 'We are not alone.' The Age of Disclosure is screening at the SXSW film festival and will be released later this year
Yahoo
11-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Q&A: New documentary claims US government has been secretly capturing UFOs, aliens for decades
CHARLOTTE (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — A new documentary claims the US has been secretly working to capture UFOs and aliens for nearly 80 years. 'The Age of Disclosure' delves into the reported efforts from the US government to collect information on aliens and their visits to our world. This documentary features various high-ranking officials, including the former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who worked under President Obama. Clapper claims the government has taken an out-of-date approach to disclosing information on UAPs or Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena. Former US Air Force Airman Jacob Barber testified in 2024 before lawmakers and recently talked to NewsNation about his work on some of these government operations, specifically something he calls 'The Range'. The film also features interviews with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and former Director of the US Government's UAP Task Force Jay Stratton. Chief Transportation Correspondent MayCay Beeler speaks on the stigma around aliens and UFOs and how some will try to discredit the high-ranking officials featured in the documentary. And the big question: Are Americans even prepared for the developments that could change the course of humanity? Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
11-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘The Age of Disclosure' documentary presents evidence of aliens and UFOs with broad bipartisan support. Will people believe it?
AUSTIN, Texas — The documentary The Age of Disclosure sets out to do what countless films have done before: present proof that humans on Earth are not alone in the universe. What's different this time is that 34 senior members of the government, military and intelligence community went on camera to talk about it. 'This is the biggest story there is,' director Dan Farah told Yahoo Entertainment. 'What's a bigger story than an 80-year-old cover-up of the existence of nonhuman intelligent life and revealing there's a secret Cold War race among nations to reverse-engineer technology of nonhuman origin?' There's a lot to unpack here, so let's back up. See for yourself — The Yodel is the go-to source for daily news, entertainment and feel-good stories. By signing up, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy. The movie, which premiered on March 9 at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Film & TV Festival, reveals information alleging that the U.S. government has been working to hide evidence of the existence of extraterrestrials and that it's competing with other countries to reverse-engineer the complex technology they've uncovered. It's a stigmatized topic often associated with conspiracy theorists, but Congress has held multiple hearings over the last few years about unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs) — a less loaded term, perhaps, for UFOs. The documentary states that UAPs could be foreign invaders, robust U.S. counterintelligence that is out of congressional oversight, extraterrestrials or a combination of the three. And they're not just weird-looking objects in the sky either. Intelligence officials in the documentary say there's irrefutable, documented evidence of vehicles that appear to defy the laws of physics and interfere with nuclear and military activity. Much of that evidence is still classified. According to dissenters mentioned in the film, giving the American people more information about the advanced technology would inform the whole world — including so-called bad actors from other countries. Russia and China were mentioned by name. There's also a stigma for political figures, ever concerned about their reputations, who speak out about UAPs. One source claimed that a Pentagon official told them UAPs are 'the devil's work.' It's difficult for anyone — regardless of status — to get access to classified UAP information. 'Even presidents, it seems, have been operating on a need-to-know basis,' Secretary of State Marco Rubio says in the film. He added that some of the biggest attacks on the U.S., like the Sept. 11 attacks and the bombing of Pearl Harbor, came from the country's inability to prepare for the unforeseen. That's why he's one of several bipartisan advocates for further transparency and research into UAP findings. Two key voices in the documentary are Jay Stratton, a former Defense Intelligence Agency official and director of the government's UAP Task Force, and Luis Elizondo, a former Department of Defense official and member of the government's Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP). 'I have seen with my own eyes nonhuman craft and nonhuman beings,' Stratton says in the film. Both men mention repeatedly that the government's 'legacy program,' which includes members of the CIA and the Air Force as well as defense contractors, obscures information in a way that's creating a national security threat. It's been around since the 1940s. Elizondo says in the documentary that he felt driven by a sense of duty to widely share information that 'could change the trajectory of our species.' He believes extraterrestrials may be trying to study our military and nuclear capabilities. So, what's the evidence? Much of that is still classified — but not everything. Military officials including Alex Dietrich, James Cobb and Ryan Graves all recall encounters they saw with their own eyes. Scientists Hal Puthoff and Eric Davis explain in the documentary that UAPs frequently move inside clear spheres. They believe space and time function differently inside those bubbles, which allow the beings inside to survive moving at extreme speeds (more than 30,000 miles per hour) across media like air and water while defying gravity and producing biological effects on the people who come close to them. The technology that would be required to make that possible is far beyond what the U.S. has harnessed, leading some to believe that the lifeforms responsible for it could have destroyed humans already if they wanted to. It also may present a clean, combustion-free energy source that would be massively beneficial to the climate. With bipartisan support, New York Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer and South Dakota Republican Sen. Mike Rounds introduced the Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Disclosure Act in July 2023 to increase transparency around UAPs and further open scientific research. Whistleblowers provided firsthand testimony to Congress, alleging that there are secret programs to retrieve and seek to reverse engineer advanced craft of unknown or nonhuman origin. It became a law, but was first stripped of an eminent domain mandate that would have given the government the power to take control of UAP-related material controlled by private persons or entities — like federal contractors. Rubio explains in the documentary that putting contractors in charge of certain projects gives them protection from Freedom of Information Act requests that apply to the government. The documentary never likens UAPs, extraterrestrial discoveries or government cover-ups to anything in pop culture — no E.T., no Close Encounters and definitely no Men in Black. That might have made it easier for people to comprehend, but Farah told Yahoo Entertainment that 'the goal was to make the most credible, serious, non-sensational documentary ever made on the topic.' 'I didn't want to do anything that even came close to sensationalism,' he said. What was most eye-opening for him wasn't the sheer number of people willing to speak out about this or call for change — it was the bipartisan support for it. 'It became very clear that leadership in both the Democratic and Republican parties think this is an extremely important topic, and that's why Secretary of State Rubio from the Republican Party and Senator [Kirsten] Gillibrand from the Democratic Party made it a priority to participate,' Farah said. 'The interview subjects in my documentary make it clear there are things happening regarding this topic that we should be concerned about and we should be taking seriously.' The documentary does not include any voices that disagree with what UAP findings might be or explain them away. Farah said that 'there's not really another side.' 'I'm telling you what happened. These people are … extremely credible people who are sharing their personal knowledge and experience,' he said. 'My hope would be that it helps create some conversations around this topic that haven't been happening that will help get rid of the unjust stigma around this topic to make sure our country is taking it seriously.' He believes that if people call on the government to release more information about UAPs, that may lead to what the documentary calls 'the greatest paradigm shift in human history — the Age of Disclosure.' had its world premiere at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, on March 9.
Yahoo
11-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘The Age of Disclosure' documentary presents evidence of aliens and UFOs with broad bipartisan support. Will people believe it?
AUSTIN, Texas — The documentary The Age of Disclosure sets out to do what countless films have done before: present proof that humans on Earth are not alone in the universe. What's different this time is that 34 senior members of the government, military and intelligence community went on camera to talk about it. 'This is the biggest story there is,' director Dan Farah told Yahoo Entertainment. 'What's a bigger story than an 80-year-old cover-up of the existence of nonhuman intelligent life and revealing there's a secret Cold War race among nations to reverse-engineer technology of nonhuman origin?' There's a lot to unpack here, so let's back up. See for yourself — The Yodel is the go-to source for daily news, entertainment and feel-good stories. By signing up, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy. The movie, which premiered on March 9 at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Film & TV Festival, reveals information alleging that the U.S. government has been working to hide evidence of the existence of extraterrestrials and that it's competing with other countries to reverse-engineer the complex technology they've uncovered. It's a stigmatized topic often associated with conspiracy theorists, but Congress has held multiple hearings over the last few years about unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs) — a less loaded term, perhaps, for UFOs. The documentary states that UAPs could be foreign invaders, robust U.S. counterintelligence that is out of congressional oversight, extraterrestrials or a combination of the three. And they're not just weird-looking objects in the sky either. Intelligence officials in the documentary say there's irrefutable, documented evidence of vehicles that appear to defy the laws of physics and interfere with nuclear and military activity. Much of that evidence is still classified. According to dissenters mentioned in the film, giving the American people more information about the advanced technology would inform the whole world — including so-called bad actors from other countries. Russia and China were mentioned by name. There's also a stigma for political figures, ever concerned about their reputations, who speak out about UAPs. One source claimed that a Pentagon official told them UAPs are 'the devil's work.' It's difficult for anyone — regardless of status — to get access to classified UAP information. 'Even presidents, it seems, have been operating on a need-to-know basis,' Secretary of State Marco Rubio says in the film. He added that some of the biggest attacks on the U.S., like the Sept. 11 attacks and the bombing of Pearl Harbor, came from the country's inability to prepare for the unforeseen. That's why he's one of several bipartisan advocates for further transparency and research into UAP findings. Two key voices in the documentary are Jay Stratton, a former Defense Intelligence Agency official and director of the government's UAP Task Force, and Luis Elizondo, a former Department of Defense official and member of the government's Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP). 'I have seen with my own eyes nonhuman craft and nonhuman beings,' Stratton says in the film. Both men mention repeatedly that the government's 'legacy program,' which includes members of the CIA and the Air Force as well as defense contractors, obscures information in a way that's creating a national security threat. It's been around since the 1940s. Elizondo says in the documentary that he felt driven by a sense of duty to widely share information that 'could change the trajectory of our species.' He believes extraterrestrials may be trying to study our military and nuclear capabilities. So, what's the evidence? Much of that is still classified — but not everything. Military officials including Alex Dietrich, James Cobb and Ryan Graves all recall encounters they saw with their own eyes. Scientists Hal Puthoff and Eric Davis explain in the documentary that UAPs frequently move inside clear spheres. They believe space and time function differently inside those bubbles, which allow the beings inside to survive moving at extreme speeds (more than 30,000 miles per hour) across media like air and water while defying gravity and producing biological effects on the people who come close to them. The technology that would be required to make that possible is far beyond what the U.S. has harnessed, leading some to believe that the lifeforms responsible for it could have destroyed humans already if they wanted to. It also may present a clean, combustion-free energy source that would be massively beneficial to the climate. With bipartisan support, New York Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer and South Dakota Republican Sen. Mike Rounds introduced the Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Disclosure Act in July 2023 to increase transparency around UAPs and further open scientific research. Whistleblowers provided firsthand testimony to Congress, alleging that there are secret programs to retrieve and seek to reverse engineer advanced craft of unknown or nonhuman origin. It became a law, but was first stripped of an eminent domain mandate that would have given the government the power to take control of UAP-related material controlled by private persons or entities — like federal contractors. Rubio explains in the documentary that putting contractors in charge of certain projects gives them protection from Freedom of Information Act requests that apply to the government. The documentary never likens UAPs, extraterrestrial discoveries or government cover-ups to anything in pop culture — no E.T., no Close Encounters and definitely no Men in Black. That might have made it easier for people to comprehend, but Farah told Yahoo Entertainment that 'the goal was to make the most credible, serious, non-sensational documentary ever made on the topic.' 'I didn't want to do anything that even came close to sensationalism,' he said. What was most eye-opening for him wasn't the sheer number of people willing to speak out about this or call for change — it was the bipartisan support for it. 'It became very clear that leadership in both the Democratic and Republican parties think this is an extremely important topic, and that's why Secretary of State Rubio from the Republican Party and Senator [Kirsten] Gillibrand from the Democratic Party made it a priority to participate,' Farah said. 'The interview subjects in my documentary make it clear there are things happening regarding this topic that we should be concerned about and we should be taking seriously.' The documentary does not include any voices that disagree with what UAP findings might be or explain them away. Farah said that 'there's not really another side.' 'I'm telling you what happened. These people are … extremely credible people who are sharing their personal knowledge and experience,' he said. 'My hope would be that it helps create some conversations around this topic that haven't been happening that will help get rid of the unjust stigma around this topic to make sure our country is taking it seriously.' He believes that if people call on the government to release more information about UAPs, that may lead to what the documentary calls 'the greatest paradigm shift in human history — the Age of Disclosure.' had its world premiere at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, on March 9.
