It was a pleasure for me this month to interview Alan Stivelman – writer and director of the ground-breaking new movie, “Witness of Another World.”

This beautiful, hauntingly human movie pulls us in to a place of deep feeling. The narrative begins with intrigue and questions surrounding Juan Perez, an Argentinian gaucho whose experience of a close encounter as a boy of 12 profoundly altered the course of his life.

Often when we want to dismiss and laugh at reports of close encounters we casually suggest that perhaps people make these things up for the sake of 15 minutes of fame. In reality these experiences are often profoundly isolating and can take a long time to process and recover from. “Witness to Another World” is a powerful case study. With great vulnerability and courage Juan invites Alan – and us – into his life. In so doing he allows us a new insight into this unfamiliar aspect of the close encounter phenomenon.

Juan Perez

In researching my own book “Escaping from Eden,” I came to believe that the world’s indigenous narratives and hold ancestral memories which speak powerfully to the question of ET contact, human consciousness and our relationship with the universe. I have never seen a movie – documentary or fiction – that has illustrated these interweaving threads as powerfully as Alan Stivelman’s movie.

Alan’s privileged access to Juan – the boy in question, now a man – and the wonderful rapport he built with Juan alongside the world class expertise of psychologist Dr Nestor Berlanda and French Astrophysicist Jacques Vallee creates a journey which we are privileged to share through the narrative of the movie. It is a narrative that dramatizes the relationship between an ET encounter, impact on human consciousness, and orientation rooted in ancestral memory – coincidentally all the themes of my book, “Escaping from Eden.”

I can almost guarantee that you will not think or feel the same about ET contact after you have seen “Witness to Another World.”

Personally I am excited to be interviewing Alan Stivelman in a few days’ time for The 5th Kind TV. Having watched the movie twice now I can’t wait to hear even more about this fascinating story, first-hand. Thank you Juan for your courage in making the journey you did. And thank you Alan for your courage in bringing the story to us. (Photography courtesy of Diego Waldman.)

TRAILER FOR PAUL’S INTERVIEW WITH FILMMAKER ALAN STIVELMAN

Trailer

Paul interviews Alan Stivelman on The 5th Kind TV