Cosmic Whistleblowers – Raindance Festival

Director: Simon Sharman

Running time: 75 minutes

Country: USA

We all remember the end of The Rock, where Nicolas Cage has all the state secrets of the US – calling out to his girlfriend, “I just found out who shot JFK”. This is the first thing I would look for if I could know anything in US history, but there are plenty of people out there who would rather know what really happened in Roswell in 1947, where the wreckage of an indistinct object was found. Whatever happened there was soon covered up by the government, and witnesses were intimidated into not saying anything. There is evidently something fishy about the incident, and it is wise not to trust what the government says given their actions, yet only the real truthers would believe this is definitive evidence of extra-terrestrial life. Not that this has stopped them from trying for the past sixty-eight years.

Image: Lost Angel Productions

Cosmic Whistleblowers takes place over three years and concerns writer-director Simon Sharma, as he accompanies other ufologists to a dig in Rockwell. During this inconclusive journey, interviewing a few people on the sly, he hears of slides that may be definitive evidence of aliens, slides that are being kept from him by his colleagues for unknown reasons. These slides work well to drive the plot, taking us to a symposium in Mexico City, which is sold to 10,000 members of the public and simultaneously beamed across the internet. The film works much better as a study about the type of people who operate in the UFO community than it is a convincing study of what really went on in 1947. Sharman admits he is a believer, but thankfully the film doesn’t take a hard propaganda line, instead finding its interest when exposing the stupidity of the exposers, the final twist revealing them to be much more concerned with putting on shows than displaying any real scientific prowess.

 …thankfully the film doesn’t take a hard propaganda line, instead finding its interest when exposing the stupidity of the exposers

I was never very good at science, but as far as I understand, for something to pass as scientific fact, it needs to be proven not just once, but again and again. Grainy photographs, tiny shards of metal, and eyewitness accounts of old people do not count as hard facts – something Sharma admits to himself. Ufology – the look for extraterrestrial life – is not a strict science. Even official campaigners for more information on UFO’s admit as much, one comparing it to an “intellectual ghetto” where investigators are up against universal ridicule. I find conspiracy theories quite interesting, but whilst it is wise to exercise reasonable doubt (could Oswald really shoot that far?) it is foolhardy to claim anything as gospel truth.

The main thesis of the film seems to be that there would be less stupidity and self-promotion involved within the UFO community if the government actually disclosed their documents pertaining to alleged sightings

The main thesis of the film seems to be that there would be less stupidity and self-promotion involved within the UFO community if the government actually disclosed their documents pertaining to alleged sightings. The reason the government haven’t, I suspect, is that they are covering up secrets from the cold war or other unlawful operations that could possibly compromise national security. I have a very hard time believing in alien life, especially when the images we are presented with seem to be just as we expected, such as flying saucers, and bodies with oblong heads. Surely if they really existed, they’d look something much different than we’d actually expect them to, not like something out of Independence Day. One smart Ufologist looks to the future, referencing Snowden and Wikileaks. Maybe then we will find out the truth. For now, I trust the scientists.