Something's happening here, but what it is ain't exactly clear, according to UFO documentary filmmaker Dan Farah, who interviewed current and former senior members of the U.S. government, military, and intelligence community on the record to look at what's going down.
Farah's "The Age of Disclosure" world premiere is Sunday at the South by Southwest Film Festival, and The Hollywood Reporter's Q&A gives a glimpse into knowing about the unknown as known in Congress as unidentified anomalous phenomenon — the fancy new name for UFOs.
"None of the government leadership I spoke to are debating whether this is real," Farah told THR.
That includes now-Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his chilling, eye-opening warning on UAPs that hits closer to home than science-fiction stories of little green men.
"There's a scene in the documentary that I find especially impactful, where Marco Rubio talks about how a lack of imagination has historically led to all of the greatest intelligence failures and disasters — from Pearl Harbor to 9/11 — and that he doesn't want that to happen again," Farah told THR.
"He says in the film, 'We've had repeated instances of something operating in the airspace over restricted nuclear facilities, and it's not ours. And we don't know whose it is. That alone deserves inquiry, deserves attention, deserves focus.' "
Farah equates that warning to the biggest attack on America in history on 9/11.
"Prior to 9/11, we didn't put enough money toward counter-terrorism, and our intelligence agencies didn't share enough information," he continued. "Everyone looked back and said, 'We could have done this better.'
"My interview subjects point out that we're now in a situation where that stigma around UAPs is creating hurdles for us to appropriately address this issue with a whole government approach. There's not the appropriate amount of funding going toward it and there's not the appropriate amount of oversight."
Farah interviewed 34 current and former senior members of the U.S. government, military, and intelligence community on the record in his documentary, making it unique in that it puts names and recognizable faces like Rubio's in it.
"I hope I made a film that makes the public aware of a very serious situation that impacts us all," Farah told THR. "I had multiple senators tell me that they thought my documentary would be one of the most effective tools for helping make the public aware of the truth in a way that could get the rest of the government to take this topic more seriously."
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., co-sponsored the UAP Disclosure Act, which was also endorsed by Rubio and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y.
"The act had very specific language to try to use the law to bring about disclosure," Farah told THR. "Schumer literally included a quote saying, 'The American public has a right to learn about technologies of unknown origins, non-human intelligence, and unexplainable phenomena.'
"This is very specific language. When you read that, any average person would say to themselves, 'Oh my God, is this real?' Yes, it is real.
"Something else that I found really eye-opening is how truly bipartisan this topic is at a time where Democrats and Republicans don't agree on anything. The leadership of both parties are completely aligned on how serious this is. None of the government leadership I spoke to — who have access to very sensitive classified information — were debating whether this is real. None of them."