At the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin, Texas, the new documentary The Age of Disclosure premiered, drew both excitement and skepticism.
Directed by Dan Farah, The Age of Disclosure is described as an "unprecedented and revelatory" documentary that promises to overturn uncertainty by revealing explosive information, although it is not the most cinematic documentary. According to SciencePost, the film offers an in-depth analysis and surprising revelations about the profound impact of unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs) on humanity's future.
The documentary features interviews with 34 senior officials from the US government, military, and intelligence community, detailing a government effort to hide information on possible alien activity and exploring claims of a long-standing cover-up surrounding UAPs. According to Newsweek, these testimonies assert that "we are not alone."
Among the participants are former US officials and activists, including Luis Elizondo and Jay Stratton, who provide testimonies about aliens and their spacecraft, sharing their experiences within US security arms. According to The Guardian, both Elizondo and Stratton have direct knowledge of UAPs.
"I have seen with my own eyes, non-human craft and non-human beings," said Jay Stratton, a former director of the government task force on non-human incidents, according to a report by The Washington Post.
The film also features a bipartisan group of politicians, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who call for more transparency and investigation into UAPs, asserting that it is time for the US government to disclose the alien secrets that have allegedly been hidden.
"The government's efforts to conceal information about UAPs represent '80 years of lies and deception' and are 'the most successful disinformation campaign in the history of the U.S. government,'" said Luis Elizondo, a central figure in The Age of Disclosure and a former senior intelligence official.
Elizondo says he believes extraterrestrials are trying to study US military and nuclear capabilities, and another interviewee discusses how dangerous it would be for a terrorist group to obtain alien technology. Elizondo and Stratton express a fear that information about reverse-engineering alien technology could get into the hands of US adversaries.
The film discusses the Tic Tac Incident of 2004, where US Naval pilots, including Commander David Fravor, encountered a strange oval-shaped object that appeared to have no wings, markings, or exhaust plumes. The object allegedly reached speeds ten times greater than America's best aircraft before stopping in mid-air—an achievement considered impossible by most experts.
Commander David Fravor, a Top Gun fighter pilot who was sent to investigate the Tic Tac UFO, observed the object for five minutes before it sped off. These UFOs could screech to a halt in midair and reverse course at angles impossible for any jet ever made.
The documentary reveals that the US government has been hiding evidence of UFOs and alien encounters for 80 years, detailing a long-standing cover-up regarding non-human intelligence and the global race to capture and reverse-engineer alien technology. The film claims major world powers have been secretly working to exploit extraterrestrial-origin technology.
An expert interviewed in the film warns: "The first country that decodes this technology will dominate the world for years to come." According to The Washington Post, the documentary reveals a technological arms race among the US, China, and Russia to reverse-engineer UAP technology.
Dan Farah, the director of the documentary, spent three years speaking with sources to create "the most definitive, credible film on what can be legally disclosed" regarding UAPs.
Some high-level politicians were afraid of how it might taint their reputation or impact them politically," explained Farah. After long conversations with their significant others, some potential participants decided it just wasn't worth it.
"This is a very real situation, and the stakes are incredibly high. Clearly, it's the most controversial issue of our time—leaders from both political parties have made it clear to me how serious it is," said Farah during a Q&A session after the film's premiere.
Despite the film's revelations, critics noted that the disclosures are not much in terms of hard evidence. According to Collider.com, the film lacks substantial filmed documentation and archival materials, relying instead on interviews while the few pieces of evidence they provide are either old, like the Tic Tac video, or too vague and classified to be meaningfully challenged.
"Nothing is proven, and thus nothing can be refuted," stated Daniel Fienberg of The Hollywood Reporter, who dismissed The Age of Disclosure as "a basic cable exploitation doc done up with a fancy gloss."
Christian Zilko of IndieWire stated that The Age of Disclosure presents "the most convincing argument you can make without showing any actual evidence."
"We are not alone," said Stratton. He also urged the public: "Push your representatives, push the executive branch, push the president to bring this to light, to make transparency happen, so the world can understand that what we've been dealing with is real."
Although The Age of Disclosure does not yet have a release date, distribution in theaters and streaming platforms is being planned.
The article was written with the assistance of a news analysis system.