A few years ago, Harvard
psychiatrist John Mack, a leading researcher in the alien
encounter phenomenon, approached me after seeing my recent film
The Jew in the Lotus. He wanted me to consider making a
movie about encounters with these alien life forms. I told him
no. I knew next to nothing about alien abduction, had no
interest and thought it was all rather foolish.
Then, he invited me to meet some of
the people who claim to have had these experiences. They seemed
rather normal and spoke about their feelings of connection and
longing for these uninvited intruders to return. I had stumbled
into a world filled by people who had been touched by
something... and had their lives blown apart because of it.
I was mesmerized. I feel that I was
abducted by John Mack.
This started my journey into the lives and minds of alleged
abductees around the world, and into my own personal journey
through skepticism, fear, insomnia, fascination, confusion and
led to many many questions.
These “experiencers,” as many of them call themselves, bring
with them reports of missing time, bodily probing, sperm
extraction, impregnation, a strange project to create a
hybrid/alien-human race and apocalyptic warnings.
According to various studies, the
number of people world wide reporting alien abductions reaches
into the hundreds of thousands. As there is no conclusive
physical proof, the debate as to whether these stories are true
or not could go on forever. Instead, I became more interested in
the people — those who have had their lives both torn apart and
transformed by this experience.
What happens when the unexplained intrudes into our lives, and
how do lives and relationships respond when credulity is
strained to a breaking point? This is the leading question I set
out to explore. This is a film about the human experience —
about longing for connection and fear of separation.
When a person is confronted by something that is so powerful, so
indescribably outside the realm of everyday life, it forces a
reexamination of everything previously taken for granted.
The experience redefines every
relationship: with one's self, family, and reality itself.
Following the lead of those like Carl Jung and Joseph
Campbell the audience will witness an archetypal “Hero's
Journey.” For the subjects of our film, this experience has
resulted in a kind of Holy Grail search for truth.
Beneath the sensational aspects of alien abduction, these are
real people looking for answers. Touched follows a human quest
to solve a mystery — perhaps only to find that the answer is the
quest itself.
I now call myself agnostic. I am not convinced that these people
have been visited by “aliens,” but I do believe that something
profound has happened to them.
And maybe, just maybe, everything
they have described is, in fact, completely true.
Laurel Chiten
Blind Dog Films
