Mirage Men
A feature length documentary by John Lundberg, Mark Pilkington, Roland Denning and Kypros Kyprianou - a extraordinary journey into deep paranoia, featuring a battle for hearts and minds between the American military and UFO observers.
WORLD PREMIERE at the
Sheffield Doc/Fest June 2013
UK DVD available now. This is a special, extended 2-disc version including the full length feature, 8-page booklet with essays by the filmmakers on The Genesis of Mirage Men, Tricksters, Saucers and Cyber Magicians, The Enigma of Richard Doty and The Unreliable Narrator, and over an hour and half of previously unseen additional material comprising of 22 short films giving background history, extra interviews and an exclusive Urthona music video.
I spent the next month working with 50 hours of the extraordinary material that John and Mark had shot on their three trips to the USA. I had no doubt that there was a great film there and, crucially, it was the same one that John and Mark wanted to make.
I first entered the world of the Mirage Men when I read Mark Pilkington's book of the same name which documents Mark's and filmmaker John Lundberg's journey into the heart of UFO disinformation. I asked Mark to contribute to a seminar I had organised as part of the Belief System event at the AND Festival in Liverpool in 2011 and on the train back to London I asked him what had happened to the film they'd shot. Mark told me 'we haven't found the anyone to put it together it yet - do you want to take a look at it?'. I immediately said 'yes' .
I then brought in artist and editor extraordinaire Kyp Kyprianou (who, as well as co-editor was responsible for all the graphics and sound design in the film) and together we spent the next 18 months working on the film. The film is, genuinely, a collaboration between all four of us.
Mirage Men is not a film about UFOs - it is a film about what, how and why people believe, it is about the construction of myth and the dubious status of film as evidence.
More information on the Mirage Men site below.
Roland Denning, June 2013