Ariel Phenomenon

Parts of this film are quite old so hopefully things have changed by now, but Harvard really gave Dr. Mack a hard time which I had not known about. As someone in the doc says, you can believe in God and angels etc., at Harvard, but not in ET life.

The other disturbing part was how the very religious parents of one of the girls (Emily Trim), reacted to the incident. I've always suspected that religious people would have their worlds rocked by an ET encounter but this proved just how much it upset them because they wouldn't even let their kids talk about it and they moved back to Canada as soon as it happened (they had been sent to Africa by the Salvation Army to do religious work). Although perhaps not all religions are as closed-minded because in 1959, Father William B. Gill, an Anglican missionary, saw a space ship in Papua New Guinea and he didn't seem freaked out at all.

But it's a good doc even if you know the story and have seen clips of the kids before. It would have been nice if more of the former students could have been in it as adults now because I think those were the best parts. But it's definitely a good watch if you're a UFO buff.

The gravity of the UFO/EBE event at The Ariel School in Zimbabwe was heightened by the sheer number of witnesses along with the fact it may have lasted fifteen or so minutes. Events like this are rare, of course, and would possibly even be singular as the EBEs interacted with some of the witnesses. Quite a stir locally quickly spread wider as all news services picked it up. The BBC felt compelled by duty to dig deeper. So begins the larger story of what many consider the most credible mass-sighting event in the modern world.

Tim Leach of the BBC's Zimbabwe Bureau was immediately on the story interviewing the witnesses at Ariel School who witnessed the event. Leach, finding the many children wholly believable felt the need to better document the amazing daylight encounter of not only the unknown flying vehicle but interaction between some of the students with unknown beings. Leach called Harvard University's John Mack. Mack immediately knew this was something beyond compelling, historically important in mankind's history. Mack travelled eight-thousand miles to Africa to interview the witnesses first-hand. He documented interviews with the students on video and audio as well as taking extensive written notes as he found the event amazing and credible.

Now in 2022 filmmaker/researcher Randall Nickerson gives viewers a deep dive back to the Ariel School Event of 1994. Combining both Leach's and Mack's video interviews with new interviews of many of the witnesses some twenty-five plus years on often proves amazing. It re-elevates the importance of this still unexplained event much as it should be in an age when The United States of America government/military has finally admitted to the existence of unexplained flying phenomenon. I think Nickerson has done a service to the larger need for open and transparent disclosure on what has been closeted for myriad reasons - including the always hovering one of ridicule. Bringing The Ariel School Event back into the public eye with actual witnesses is simply fascinating. As such I feel this is a very important film.

The events, witnesses, archival footage work is really extensive but unfortunately all of this effort suffers a lot from poor editing work. 1h and 40 minutes long that could have easily been 30 minutes long instead and become an extremely compelling documentary. The layout of the facts is way too scattered, the focus of the narrative is all over the place often going on tangents that don't really feel relevant or necessary.

The Phenomenon documentary (Directed by James Fox) covers all of the relevant parts of this same event in its last 10 minutes and does a fantastic job at it.

7 of 10 because of the extensive archival work done but again, from a documetaristic point of view it really needed more triage done in my opinion.

I backed this project in 2017 and have been waiting diligently for it to come out, and now I can firmly conclude that it was worth the wait.

Contrary to the subject matter of aliens, this is still a very human story about the toll it takes processing something so completely unknown and extraordinary that it gets dismissed out of hand. But with all the facts neatly lined up in this film, it is very hard if not nigh impossible to deny that something incredible happened on that day in Ruwa, Zimbabwe in 1994. I would challenge anyone to watch this documentary and not reach the same conclusion.

It's a beautifully shot film which intermixes archival footage with modern day follow-ups with students, faculty and other people involved, as well as gorgeous images of the African countryside. It invokes feelings of sympathy, connectedness and a sense of wonder. The juxtaposition of old and new testimonies underlines the credibility of this story and how it hasn't changed in two and a half decades.

If it really actually happened, and there is little reason to doubt it did, what could it all mean?

It makes you wonder...

I've been admittedly frustrated with the time it's taken for this movie to be released, but I'm so happy it finally was. This incident is so incredibly compelling. I'm hoping once they receive some funds from rentals, there will be some additional publicity, and hopefully gets picked up by a streaming service so more people can see it. This is an incredible story about not only these children seeing other-worldly beings and things that can't be explained, but the importance of giving people a voice and listening to experiences, something John Mack was very passionate about. Learning about these children changed my life, and I'm a little jealous of all you who will be discovering this story for the first time!