A new and interesting UFO documentary airs tonight on the Australian SCI FI channel (Foxtel, 8.30 pm), titled WESTALL ’66: A suburban UFO mystery.
In 1966, in the Australian suburb of Westall, hundreds of students, teachers and local residents witnessed a UFO hover overhead for several minutes, land and take off again at incredible speed. Silenced by authorities at the time, and still angry about not being believed, they revisit the event as tenacious amateur sleuth Shane Ryan goes back to find an answer to the mystery. With an undercurrent of Cold War paranoia, and a burgeoning military alliance between Australia and America, their story has a deep resonance in the current cover-ups and lies delivered by governments in the interests of national security.
Here’s a story from Australian TV about the incident, and the new documentary, as well as input from Australian skeptic Richard Saunders:
Australian UFO researcher Bill Chalker has already seen the documentary, and highly recommends it. On his ‘Oz Files’ blog, Bill writes:
It is a powerful narrative of a reality denied by authority but revealed in compelling ways through the words of the witnesses and the wonderfully inspired decision to use the charcoal drawings and animations of animator Lee Whitmore… The black and white renderings of the key 1966 Westall events hauntingly evoke the 1960s era and the visions of the impossible witnessed mainly by school children. There were adult witnesses who also share their stories.
Genuine anomaly, experimental aircraft, weather balloon – what do you think? More information about the documentary, including DVD purchasing instructions, can be found at the official Westall ’66 website.
