-Caveat Lector-
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Bolinas man's film says we are not alone
Alex Horvath, Special to The Chronicle Friday, February 7, 2003 [chronicle.gif]
________________________________________________________________
On a recent Friday morning, Marin filmmaker James Fox was in New York City trying to
do what he calls "some
guerrilla marketing." In case you missed him, that was Fox on NBC's "Today" show -
standing in the crowd behind
host Matt Lauer, holding up a sign that posed the question, "Are UFOs Real?"
The sign also listed a Web site where viewers could learn about Fox's newest
documentary, "Out of the Blue," which
ponders the existence of UFOs and how much the government has actually revealed
about them. It was Fox's second
time on "Today" in a week - having pulled the same stunt on Monday morning after
arriving in the Big Apple.
The unscheduled background appearances on national television were a success, the
Bolinas resident said.
"My Web site got more than 1,700 hits on Monday alone and sold enough copies of the
video to pay my airfare. It
more than paid for the trip to New York," he said.
While Fox's "Today" show antics might be viewed by some as extreme, praise has come
from those who have actually
seen the film, including the publisher of Skeptic Magazine.
"With what seems like an almost illimitable supply of documentaries on UFOs one
begins to wonder what else can be
said about these elusive craft. 'Out of the Blue' breaks out of the paradigmatic
mold and emerges as one of the
very best films ever produced on this, one of the most interesting subjects in the
history of science," Skeptic
Magazine Publisher Michael Shermer said.
The film also won two EBE awards in March 2002 at the International UFO Congress -
one for Best UFO Documentary
and the other a People's Choice Award. EBE stands for Extraterrestrial Biological
Entity.
An executive at the Sci Fi Channel confirmed that negotiations are under way to
purchase broadcast rights to "Out
of the Blue."
At 34, Fox is making a name for himself in the world of documentary filmmakers and
flying saucer chasers,
sometimes referred to as "UFOlogists."
Not bad for someone with no formal journalistic background or film and video
training and who, until recently,
hadn't given much thought to government cover-ups or the existence of UFOs.
The video is Fox's second work on the existence of extraterrestrials. His first
film, "UFOs: 50 Years of Denial?"
sold to the Discovery Channel in 1999 and was broadcast there (and on the Learning
Channel) for the past three
years.
The documentary features interviews with astronauts Gordon Cooper and Edgar
Mitchell, who sy scientific
investigations into the existence of extraterrestrial life are warranted based on
evidence from high-ranking
military officials they have met who say they have worked with alien technology and
hardware.
"Out of the Blue" offers a more in-depth look at the flying saucer phenomenon and
skewers government officials for
allegedly concealing facts.
The two-hour documentary, which is narrated by actor Peter Coyote, who lives in
Mill Valley, offers an alternative
view, including astronauts, former presidents and retired military personnel
lending credence to the possibility
of alien life and flying saucers.
In the film, former President Jimmy Carter claims to have seen a UFO hurtling
across the Georgia sky in 1969, and
former President Gerald Ford verifies that as a Congressman he ordered hearings
into UFO sightings that the Air
Force officials had been dismissing as being "swamp gas."
Mercury 7 astronaut Cooper tells how, in 1955, he witnessed an event that has yet
to be explained. While he was
supervising the filming of a precision- landing facility for F-86 fighter jets, a
saucerlike craft flew directly
over the cameraman. According to Cooper, three landing gear apparatus opened, and
the object landed on the dry
lakebed. Apollo 14 astronaut Mitchell tells of a covert effort to keep the subject
matter top secret.
Fox had a connection to journalism through his family; his father is Charles Fox, a
writer whose work has appeared
in Rolling Stone, Playboy and Esquire magazines, among others. Fox remembered going
along on an interview with his
father for a PC Magazine article about physicist Stephen Hawking in the early 1990s.
"It was a story about the software that helps him communicate with the outside
world. But we didn't want to talk
about software; we wanted to talk about the black hole. He ticked away with his
thumb for a few minutes writing
out his response. What finally came out was 'I thought this interview was supposed
to be about computers - not
God.' "
Fox's career in filmmaking happened accidentally. He majored in French at San
Francisco State University,
graduating in 1988, but several years later, he picked up a video camera and he was
hooked. The passion for video
production led him to working in freelance production and making promotional videos.
"I did PSAs for the Black Coalition on AIDS and a video about homeless people in
different parts of the country,"
he said. "Then I did everything from videos about migratory songbirds to
winemaking."
His co-filmmakers on "Out of the Blue," are Tim Coleman, a British journalist and
documentary filmmaker whose work
has appeared on BBC-TV, and Boris Zubov, a production designer based in San
Francisco and New York.
Fox said that his interest in the UFO phenomenon developed a few years ago after a
friend told him about the
infamous "Area 51," and UFO crash recovery information associated with the 1947
crash in Roswell, N.M.
"I dismissed him as a crackpot immediately," Fox said.
But then the story was corroborated by another friend, Richard Van Sickel, whom Fox
was apprenticing with at a
video production company. Shortly thereafter, with a handful of friends, Fox and
company road-tripped down to the
Area 51/Groom Lake region of Nevada, 90 miles east of Las Vegas, where, according
to Fox, they had a UFO
encounter. "It was a saucer-shaped craft with the ability to hover, about 200 yards
away," Fox said.
Returning home, Fox found that family members doubted his credibility.
"That is when I decided to launch my own investigation - because my own family
didn't believe me," Fox said.
Fox found working as a documentary journalist took persistence.
"I spent two years establishing a rapport with President Ford's secretary, Penny
Circle," Fox said. "I found a
letter in his personal archives initiating congressional hearings (on UFOs) in
1968. President Ford confirmed it.
He said,
'I undoubtedly wrote to a general on the armed services committee that such an
investigation be taken.' Previous
to that, the Air Force's explanation of UFO sightings as being just swamp gas was
absurd - a spit in the face.
(Ford's hearings) were the closest we came to full disclosure."
Fox said that in order to use the telephone interview with President Ford, the
former president first had to view
the film and approve it.
To finance his second film, Fox said he used some of the money he made from the
Discovery Channel - and was
fortunate to get a $20,000 donation from an interested individual.
"He was a gentleman I had never met. He contacted me and offered the money with no
strings attached," Fox said.
"He was former military and didn't want his name to be known.
"I only look at myself a little bit as a UFOlogist," Fox said. "I look at myself
more as a documentary filmmaker."
His next topic, he says, will be on the history of alternative energy sources.
"Dealing with the subject of UFOs has generally not been a subject worthy of
serious consideration," Fox said.
"There is a preponderance of evidence in this film. You can dismiss one or two
testimonies - and I challenge
people to discredit some of the testimonies in the film.
"You get to a certain point when you can't dismiss each and every witness. You have
to ask yourself: Are UFOs
real?" Fox said.
"Someone asked my father recently if he had any doubts about my work or the
existence of UFOs. He replied, 'Not
anymore.' "
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
To learn more Information about "Out of the Blue" can be found at outoftheblue.tv.
www.ctrl.org
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