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From Skepticism to Disclosure: The Ten Best UFO Documentaries (1970–2025)

Discover the evolution of UFO documentaries from 1970 to 2025. From Out of the Blue to The Age of Disclosure, explore ten of the best films that shaped how we see UFOs, UAPs, and the search for extraterrestrial life.

Published

4 months ago

September 2, 2025

Rod Washington

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For more than half a century, filmmakers have attempted to capture the mystery of unidentified flying objects. What began as fringe speculation in the 1970s has transformed into a global discussion about government secrecy, scientific inquiry, and the possibility of life beyond Earth. Across decades, documentaries have reflected society’s changing attitudes toward UFOs—sometimes skeptical, sometimes sensational, and sometimes startlingly credible.

Here’s a look at how UFO documentaries evolved from 1970 to 2025, told through ten of the best films to define the genre.

The 1970s–1990s: Seeds of Curiosity

The 1970s marked an era when UFO culture merged with television and documentary filmmaking. Programs like In Search Of… and BBC’s UFOs: The Real Story offered early treatments of the phenomenon, leaning heavily on speculation. While not as polished as modern films, these works laid the foundation for public interest in unexplained aerial phenomena.

By the 1990s, cases such as Roswell and Rendlesham Forest gained new traction, and UFO coverage began moving into mainstream documentary slots. This was the pre-internet era, when books and television specials shaped public belief.

The 2000s: UFOs Enter the Documentary Mainstream

1. Out of the Blue (2003)

Narrated by Peter Coyote, Out of the Blue became the benchmark for serious UFO documentaries. Featuring astronauts like Gordon Cooper and interviews with scientists, it reframed UFOs as worthy of rational investigation rather than tabloid material.

2. The Secret NASA Transmissions: The Smoking Gun (2001)

While more niche, this film dissected space shuttle footage that appeared to capture strange objects in orbit. It introduced the internet era’s fascination with raw “unexplained footage,” a trend that continues today.

The 2010s: Whistleblowers and Government Shadows

The 2010s were defined by growing distrust of institutions and increased interest in disclosure. Documentaries during this era reflected that climate—probing government secrecy, intelligence operations, and hidden archives.

3. I Know What I Saw (2009)

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James Fox’s follow-up to Out of the Blue gathered credible testimonies from pilots, politicians, and military personnel. It helped legitimize eyewitness accounts and highlighted major incidents like the Phoenix Lights.

4. Mirage Men (2013)

A darker, more sobering film, Mirage Men proposed that many UFO stories may have been planted or manipulated by U.S. intelligence to conceal classified projects. It asked viewers to question not only UFO sightings but also the very narratives surrounding them.

5. Unacknowledged (2017)

Fronted by Dr. Steven Greer, this documentary argued that the government has suppressed UFO-related technologies for decades. Controversial but widely viewed, it reignited debates about disclosure in the age of digital activism.

6. Witness of Another World (2018)

Shifting away from conspiracy, this moving film explored the lifelong impact of an alien encounter on an Argentine man. Rather than focusing on governments, it humanized the UFO phenomenon by emphasizing personal experience.

The 2020s: The Age of UAPs

The release of U.S. Navy “Tic Tac” videos and Congressional hearings on UAPs (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena) sparked a new wave of documentaries—ones rooted more in official testimony than speculation.

7. The Phenomenon (2020)

Often called the definitive UFO documentary of its time, The Phenomenon compiled over 70 years of cases with interviews from top officials, including former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. It offered a comprehensive and credible account of the UFO mystery.

8. Ariel Phenomenon (2022)

This haunting film revisited a 1994 event in Zimbabwe where schoolchildren reported a mass sighting. Decades later, the witnesses—now adults—recount the emotional and cultural weight of their experience.

9. Moment of Contact (2022)

Set in Brazil, this documentary examined the infamous Varginha Incident, where locals claimed to have seen and even interacted with non-human beings. Its cinematic approach brought an international dimension to the UFO conversation.

10. The Age of Disclosure (2025)

Premiering at SXSW, this recent entry dives into what some call the modern “UFO disclosure era.” Featuring interviews with military and intelligence officials, along with political voices like Senator Marco Rubio, it suggests that an 80-year cover-up is unraveling before our eyes.

UFO Documentaries as a Mirror of Their Time

From grainy footage in the 1970s to today’s Pentagon reports, UFO documentaries mirror society’s shifting beliefs about authority, technology, and the unknown. Early films thrived on mystery, the 2010s questioned power structures, and the 2020s brought UFOs—now called UAPs—into serious policy discussions.

Whether one views these documentaries as entertainment, cultural history, or investigative journalism, together they chart humanity’s ongoing attempt to make sense of the skies.

✅ Final Thought: As the world enters what some call a disclosure era, UFO documentaries have moved from the fringes into mainstream dialogue. What was once mocked now sits at the intersection of science, politics, and philosophy—and the story is far from over.

Dive into “The Knowledge,” where curiosity meets clarity. This playlist, in collaboration with STMDailyNews.com, is designed for viewers who value historical accuracy and insightful learning. Our short videos, ranging from 30 seconds to a minute and a half, make complex subjects easy to grasp in no time. Covering everything from historical events to contemporary processes and entertainment, “The Knowledge” bridges the past with the present. In a world where information is abundant yet often misused, our series aims to guide you through the noise, preserving vital knowledge and truths that shape our lives today. Perfect for curious minds eager to discover the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of everything around us. Subscribe and join in as we explore the facts that matter. https://stmdailynews.com/the-knowledge/

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Rod: A creative force, blending words, images, and flavors. Blogger, writer, filmmaker, and photographer. Cooking enthusiast with a sci-fi vision. Passionate about his upcoming series and dedicated to TNC Network. Partnered with Rebecca Washington for a shared journey of love and art.

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Why the chemtrail conspiracy theory lingers and grows – and why Tucker Carlson is talking about it

The chemtrail conspiracy theory has surged despite being thoroughly debunked. Learn why people believe contrails are chemical weapons, how Tucker Carlson amplified the theory, and what psychology reveals about conspiracy thinking and our need for control.

Published

2 weeks ago

December 4, 2025

The Conversation

Last Updated on December 7, 2025 by Daily News Staff

Why the chemtrail conspiracy theory lingers and grows – and why Tucker Carlson is talking about it

Calum Lister Matheson, University of Pittsburgh Everyone has looked up at the clouds and seen faces, animals, objects. Human brains are hardwired for this kind of whimsy. But some people – perhaps a surprising number – look to the sky and see government plots and wicked deeds written there. Conspiracy theorists say that contrails – long streaks of condensation left by aircraft – are actually chemtrails, clouds of chemical or biological agents dumped on the unsuspecting public for nefarious purposes. Different motives are ascribed, from weather control to mass poisoning. The chemtrails theory has circulated since 1996, when conspiracy theorists misinterpreted a U.S. Air Force research paper about weather modification, a valid topic of research. Social media and conservative news outlets have since magnified the conspiracy theory. One recent study notes that X, formerly Twitter, is a particularly active node of this “broad online community of conspiracy.” I’m a communications researcher who studies conspiracy theories. The thoroughly debunked chemtrails theory provides a textbook example of how conspiracy theories work.

Boosted into the stratosphere

Conservative pundit Tucker Carlson, whose podcast averages over a million viewers per episode, recently interviewed Dane Wigington, a longtime opponent of what he calls “geoengineering.” While the interview has been extensively discredited and mocked in other media coverage, it is only one example of the spike in chemtrail belief. Although chemtrail belief spans the political spectrum, it is particularly evident in Republican circles. U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has professed his support for the theory. U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia has written legislation to ban chemical weather control, and many state legislatures have done the same. Online influencers with millions of followers have promoted what was once a fringe theory to a large audience. It finds a ready audience among climate change deniers and anti-deep state agitators who fear government mind control.

Heads I win, tails you lose

Although research on weather modification is real, the overwhelming majority of qualified experts deny that the chemtrail theory has any solid basis in fact. For example, geoengineering researcher David Keith’s lab posted a blunt statement on its website. A wealth of other resources exist online, and many of their conclusions are posted at contrailscience.com. But even without a deep dive into the science, the chemtrail theory has glaring logical problems. Two of them are falsifiability and parsimony.

The philosopher Karl Popper explains that unless your conjecture can be proved false, it lies outside the realm of science.

According to psychologist Rob Brotherton, conspiracy theories have a classic “heads I win, tails you lose” structure. Conspiracy theorists say that chemtrails are part of a nefarious government plot, but its existence has been covered up by the same villains. If there was any evidence that weather modification was actually happening, that would support the theory, but any evidence denying chemtrails also supports the theory – specifically, the part that alleges a cover-up. People who subscribe to the conspiracy theory consider anyone who confirms it to be a brave whistleblower and anyone who denies it to be foolish, evil or paid off. Therefore, no amount of information could even hypothetically disprove it for true believers. This denial makes the theory nonfalsifiable, meaning it’s impossible to disprove. By contrast, good theories are not false, but they must also be constructed in such a way that if they were false, evidence could show that. Nonfalsifiable theories are inherently suspect because they exist in a closed loop of self-confirmation. In practice, theories are not usually declared “false” based on a single test but are taken more or less seriously based on the preponderance of good evidence and scientific consensus. This approach is important because conspiracy theories and disinformation often claim to falsify mainstream theories, or at least exploit a poor understanding of what certainty means in scientific methods. Like most conspiracy theories, the chemtrail story tends not to meet the criteria of parsimony, also known as Occam’s razor, which suggests that the more suppositions a theory requires to be true, the less likely it actually is. While not perfect, this concept can be an important way to think about probability when it comes to conspiracy theories. Is it more likely that the government is covering up a massive weather program, mind-control program or both that involve thousands or millions of silent, complicit agents, from the local weather reporter to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, or that we’re seeing ice crystals from plane engines? Of course, calling something a “conspiracy theory” does not automatically invalidate it. After all, real conspiracies do exist. But it’s important to remember scientist and science communicator Carl Sagan’s adage that “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.” In the case of chemtrails, the evidence just isn’t there.

Scientists explain how humans are susceptible to believing conspiracy theories.

Psychology of conspiracy theory belief

If the evidence against it is so powerful and the logic is so weak, why do people believe the chemtrail conspiracy theory? As I have argued in my new book, “Post-Weird: Fragmentation, Community, and the Decline of the Mainstream,” conspiracy theorists create bonds with each other through shared practices of interpreting the world, seeing every detail and scrap of evidence as unshakable signs of a larger, hidden meaning. Uncertainty, ambiguity and chaos can be overwhelming. Conspiracy theories are symptoms, ad hoc attempts to deal with the anxiety caused by feelings of powerlessness in a chaotic and complicated world where awful things like tornadoes, hurricanes and wildfires can happen seemingly at random for reasons that even well-informed people struggle to understand. When people feel overwhelmed and helpless, they create fantasies that give an illusion of mastery and control. Although there are liberal chemtrail believers, aversion to uncertainty might explain why the theory has become so popular with Carlson’s audience: Researchers have long argued that authoritarian, right-wing beliefs have a similar underlying structure. On some level, chemtrail theorists would rather be targets of an evil conspiracy than face the limits of their knowledge and power, even though conspiracy beliefs are not completely satisfying. Sigmund Freud described a fort-da (“gone-here”) game played by his grandson where he threw away a toy and dragged it back on a string, something Freud interpreted as a simulation of control when the child had none. Conspiracy theories may serve a similar purpose, allowing their believers to feel that the world isn’t really random and that they, the ones who see through the charade, really have some control over it. The grander the conspiracy, the more brilliant and heroic the conspiracy theorists must be. Conspiracies are dramatic and exciting, with clear lines of good and evil, whereas real life is boring and sometimes scary. The chemtrail theory is ultimately prideful. It’s a way for theorists to feel powerful and smart when they face things beyond their comprehension and control. Conspiracy theories come and go, but responding to them in the long term means finding better ways to embrace uncertainty, ambiguity and our own limits alongside a new embrace of the tools we do have: logic, evidence and even humility. Calum Lister Matheson, Associate Professor of Communication, University of Pittsburgh This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.