Age of Disclosure: a Documentary Review - The Truth is Out There...Somewhere

AGE OF DISCLOSURE - Currently Available to Rent or Buy on VOD

My Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

My Recommendation: SKIP IT/SEE IT. This is a good documentary for those new to the UFO subject to watch as it features a lot of credible people, but for those looking for new info, look elsewhere.

Age of Disclosure, directed by Dan Farah, is a new documentary which makes the claim that the U.S. and other governments have been gathering evidence – including alien craft and bodies, over the last 80 years of extraterrestrial intelligence visiting earth.

I have been immersed in amateur “UFO studies” since the 1980s…back when they were called UFOs and not UAPs (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena). UFOs were for the majority of that time a fringe topic, spoken about either in jest or in sincere and sometimes frantic whispers.

But ever since the esteemed New York Times published an article in 2017 that reported that the U.S. Navy had a multitude of encounters with very strange and advanced technology right off the coast of the United States – and had videos of those encounters, then the UFO topic has become much more acceptable to discuss in serious company.

Once the press gave UFOs legitimacy, Senators and Congressman have been drawn to the subject and have given it even more credence by holding hearings and things of that nature.

Since 2017 there have also been a plethora of whistleblowers who have told stories of first-hand UFO encounters, government programs, crash retrievals, body retrievals, reverse engineering and the like.

The most front facing person in the UFO story since 2017 is undoubtedly Lue Elizondo, a former Special Operator in US military intelligence who claims he was put in charge of a government program called AATIP (Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program) – which investigated UAPs and if they were a threat to national security. The answer to that question is a resounding “YES!”

Elizondo has been on all of the TV networks, lots of podcasts and been the focus of many documentaries since 2017. In Age of Disclosure, he is essentially the star, guiding viewers through the dark corridors where UFO information and government power collide. Elizondo tells a stark tale, one filled with intrigue, corruption, and even murder. Quite the story.

As someone who is in many discussion groups regarding UFOs I can attest that Elizondo is a polarizing figure. His military and intelligence background give him a certain stature and credibility, but that same experience also makes him untrustworthy in the eyes of some. Why is that? Well, as an intelligence agent he was…or is…a professional liar trained in the art of deception and propaganda.

Is Elizondo lying and deceiving the public now regarding UFOs and plots and conspiracies and murder? Your guess is as good as mine…but mine says, “yes, he is lying”. I say that as someone who believes that UFOs do exist, that “alien” intelligence has come to earth and is still here now and that government knows it.

So, if I believe, in general, the story that Elizondo tells, then why do I think he is up to no good? I do not know the exact reason Elizondo is doing the things he’s doing, but I get the sense he is a nefarious player in this game, meant to, at a minimum, muddy the waters, if not be an out and out distraction.

What is odd about Elizondo is that he constantly says that he knows so much secret and powerful information about this topic but he’s not allowed to say what it is because that information is “classified”. Essentially, what he is saying is, “trust me, bro!” No thanks.

In Age of Disclosure Elizondo makes the claim that a secret government cabal runs things and even presidents don’t know the truth. I think that is probably accurate not just regarding UFOs but a lot of other things. The problem though is that Elizondo also claims that there was a meeting of the 27 people who run things, and they seriously debated murdering Elizondo – as they have done to other people, because he is a threat to their power. Quite a claim.

I have no problem with a claim like that as governments kill people…routinely….without due process or anything like it. The problem I have is that Elizondo says in the documentary he won’t reveal the code names of those 27 people. Hmmm. Why not? These people are plotting to kill you and you are protecting them? Strange. Elizondo then says that if he is found floating in the Potomac that he “didn’t kill himself.” Okay…so these people are real and they still might kill you but you won’t even tell us their codenames – which is a good thing to know if Elizondo does end up floating in the Potomac? Elizondo also just says that this shadowy group has killed other people, but he doesn’t say who they killed – which is kind of an important detail don’t you think?

This sort of tortured logic from Elizondo is always unchallenged by UFO afficionados and, more importantly, by the mainstream media, which is why I find it all so…curious.

Beyond the information that Elizondo shares, the other issue I have is that he just seems like a bullshit artist and con-man as he uses all the same old tricks to sell his bullshit without ever actually telling us anything.

This documentary has some very, very serious people in it, and they all act seriously and dress seriously and speak seriously. But Elizondo, unlike all of his fellow compatriots who wear suits, wears jeans and v-neck black t-shirt that emphasizes his tattooed body and his fat/muscled arms. It all screams unprofessionalism, and reeks of a desperate narcissism and “look at me!” mindset.

Besides Elizondo there really are some major league people in this film that lend a great deal of credence to the topic.

First off is Marco Rubio of all people. Rubio, the former senator from Florida and current Secretary of State, is someone I loathe with the fury of a thousand suns, but in Age of Disclosure he acquits himself extraordinarily well and comes across as not just reasonable but very thoughtful and serious – things I never thought I’d say about him. And the fact that a poll-cat politician like Rubio would get out in front of this topic and spend some of his credibility on it says something.

Other very serious people spotlighted in the film include Stanford University Medical School professor Garry Nolan, who is one of the more compelling voices in the entire UFO discussion in general, as well as quantum physicist Hal Puthoff and astrophysicists Eric Davis – both beacons of knowledge, wisdom, reason and experience.

Also featured are the Navy pilots who interacted with the alleged UFOs, Commander David Fravor and Ryan Graves as well as US Navy Chief Oceanographer Tim Gallaudet, all of whom are extremely credible.

Less credible is Christopher Mellon, a former Undersecretary of Defense who has years of experience in the Pentagon and intelligence. Mellon comes across as a very smart, well-informed, very reasonable person, but his professional background in intelligence, and his family – the famed Mellon banking family, scuttle his credibility in my eyes despite his serious presentation.

As for the documentary itself…it is well put together, it looks professional – with the notable exception of Elizondo, and it puts forth credible people and credible looking people to make the case that UFOs are real, the government knows about them and is hiding what it knows, and a vast conspiracy is operating behind the scenes to keep us all in the dark and under their thumb.

But with that said, if you’ve been following this topic as long as I have, or even in just recent years, then you will come to find that no new information is shared or revealed in this documentary. It is more of the same of – “I know all of this amazing stuff but I just can’t tell you - sorry!!”

If you are new to the topic or if you are a grizzled vet like me but want to bring a newbie into the discussion, this could be a good place to start as it has lots of serious people in suits with loads of credibility that normies will find compelling. U.S. Senators and congressman and military leaders talking about UFOs being real is powerful stuff to John and Jane Q. Public who have been conditioned for nearly a century to laugh at this stuff – so Age of Disclosure could help break that conditioning.

If you really wanted to put together a starter pack for a newbie to get into and understand the UFO issue, I would say start with Out of the Blue – James Fox’s masterful 2002 documentary that is the Citizen Kane of UFO documentaries. I’d follow that up with Fox’s 2009 film I Know What I Saw. I’d also throw in Jeremy Corbell’s intriguing 2018 documentary Bob Lazar: Area 51 and Flying Saucers.

I would conclude the UFO education of a newbie by having them watch the 2024 four-part documentary series from JJ Abrams’ production company, Beyond: UFOs and the Unknown. This series is as good as it gets, especially for those who are well versed on the subject.

As for Age of Disclosure, this film came with a lot of hype and a lot of speculation that it would, in fact, lead to actual disclosure from the government regarding aliens. I’d like for that to be true, and even cynical and skeptical old me perks up my ears when I hear people saying Trump is soon going to make a statement declaring that we are not alone. But the truth is…I doubt it.

The way these things have gone in recent years is that some person will come forward, like whistleblower David Grusch, or some documentary will come out, or some earth-shattering interview will occur, or a major government hearing will take place, and there will be a lot of sound and fury and ultimately it all signifies nothing.

The standard practice is that things get heightened, the fever rises…and then it subsides and absolutely nothing changes in any way, shape, or form. Whistleblowers come forward but don’t actually blow the whistle, insiders speak out but don’t actually reveal inside information…and the saga on and on.

I’d like for a wildcard president like Trump to spill the beans but the truth is he is a charlatan and just like with the JFK assassination, and the Epstein files, and all the rest, Trump will huff and puff and blow nothing but his marginal mandate – or if you believe the internet rumors – Bill Clinton.

So once again we reach a heightened moment in regards to UFO disclosure and once again that moment passes with everyone left in the dark and the powers that be left in charge. Sigh.

My recommendation regarding Age of Disclosure is it is somewhat worth seeing but to wait until you can watch it for free when it hits a streaming service and don’t do what I did which was buy it on VOD – the bottom line is that while it has some usefulness, especially for those new to the subject, but it ultimately it really isn’t worth paying for.

©2025

UFO Week - Battle for Disclosure : A Documentary Review

UFO WEEK - BATTLE FOR DISCLOSURE

My Rating: 1/2 out of 5 stars

My Recommendation: SKIP IT. Another in a long line of self-serving, money-grab documentaries from the narcissistic to the point of being messianic, Dr. Steven Greer.

Day four of UFO Week is here and today’s topic is the newest documentary from legendary ufologist Steven Greer, Battle for Disclosure.

The film, which runs one hour and forty-one minutes and is directed by Brent and Blake Cousins, was released on December 10th and is available to rent on video on demand. I rented it the day it came out and paid $1.99, but I have since went back to check the price and has been listed at $9.99 one day and $3.99 another.

The hard truth is the film isn’t worth $1.99, nevermind $9.99 or $3.99.

Steven Greer has produced a bevy of documentaries in recent years. The Lost Century: And How to Reclaim It (2023), Contact: The CE-5 Experience (2023), UFO: Endgame to Disclosure (2023), The Cosmic Hoax: An Expose (2021), Close Encounters of the Fifth Kind (2020), Unacknowledged (2017) and Siruis (2013) are among the titles.

These films all share one very prominent feature…namely Steven Greer talking mostly about Steven Greer and how much Steven Greer knows.

If you don’t know who Steven Greer is…here is a primer. Steven Greer, or more accurately Dr. Steven Greer, is a physician turned ufologist who claims to have been an advisor of sorts to numerous presidents and governments officials over the years on the subject of ufos. How he became so close to the halls of power has never adequately been explained, but Greer does have pictures of himself with various big wigs, so there’s that.

Greer claims he saw a ufo as a kid and again as a teen and that he has some deep connection with them. Apparently, it is a very strong connection because he actually claims to be able to summon them.

And thus, we get to the crux of Dr. Greer. Dr. Greer has the distinct whiff of the grift to him, and that stench is quite odious. Greer obviously has a messiah complex as indicated by the fact that he, and he alone, has been bequeathed special powers and the he, and he alone, is the holder of special, secret knowledge. In this way Greer’s school of ufology feels more like a cult than a scientific exploration.

Greer’s ufo thesis is that aliens are a benevolent bunch who want to give humanity free energy technology that will release us from the bondage of our evil overlords and unleash a utopia here on earth. To be clear…I WANT Greer’s thesis to be correct. But Greer is such a shady character and seeming charlatan that I can’t help but dismiss his ideas even when some of them are somewhat believable.

For example, in Battle for Disclosure, Greer talks about how a lot of ufo sightings are actually human made crafts that were reverse engineered from alien craft byu a dep state cabal. Greer’s argument is that these human-made ufos are “illegal”…and he can “prove it in a court of law”, because the government didn’t disclose the technology…or something like that.

Greer’s legal grandstanding feels like just another example of his messiah complex…like who gives a shit if Steven Greer can “prove in a court of law” that the dark deep state is up to ufo shenanigans…because you aren’t going to get it into a court of law…that’s how the game works.

Throughout the film Greer, with a peculiar, ever-present and diabolically persistent, booger-free nose hair saluting out of his left nostril, declares that HE could prove his case in court…but then never actually meticulously makes his case for the cameras.

Battle for Disclosure is structured in such a way that it is obviously made for people who have been closely following Greer’s films and philosophy over the years. It hits the ground running from the get go and doesn’t give much context, expecting viewers to know the backstory already.

In another peculiar move, Greer goes out of his way in the first third of the film to berate, diminish and ultimately dismiss journalist Ross Coulthart, and whistleblowers David Grusch and Lue Elizondo as deceptive scions of the deep state. He doesn’t specifically lay out his case against them but just attacks them.

Now, many of my friends in the ufo community (I have a lot of them), think very highly of people like Grusch and Elizondo and Christopher Mellon. They are all in on these guys and hang on their every word. I, on the other hand, am not and do not. I look at these characters with the most jaundiced of eyes. I don’t trust them because to trust members, or former members, of the intelligence community, is a fool’s errand. These people are professional liars and they are very good at manipulation. To be clear, I don’t dismiss everything they say out of hand, I am just skeptical of what they say and more importantly, why they may be saying it.

The problem, of course, is that Greer attacking Elizondo and Grusch and their ilk without making a viable and clear case against them, doesn’t do much to damage their credibility nor does it elevate his…it just makes him seem petty and jealous of all the mainstream attention those guys get.

In the last third of the film the narrative shifts to a collection of men recounting their experiences with ufos of one type or another. These men, all military men at the time of their encounters, tell compelling but often-times preposterous tales – all of which Greer substantiates through his alleged unnamed insider sources in the deep state.

The first story is from former US Marine Michael Herrera, who claims to have stumbled upon a human trafficking operation in Indonesia run by black ops guys that used ufo/alien tech. He said his superiors were pissed at him and his team about their discovery and told him to keep his mouth shut.

Another story was told by DC Long, who while working on a military base saw technology that could use some strange sound wave technology of some sort to lift massive blocks of granite. When Long refused to sign an NDA regarding what he saw, the government destroyed his father’s construction business and confiscated all his equipment. Long’s father never spoke to him again until he was on his deathbed.

The third story is from Steven Digna Jr., who saw a ufo while doing live fire drills on a military base. Digna is in such a diminished physical and mental state at the time of shooting his interview, that it is preceded by a disclaimer of sorts telling the viewer that these guys have been through the ringer and it’s taken a deadly toll on their lives.

Digna’s story is, frankly, the most believable, but he is in such a fragile physical and emotional state it is difficult to watch him or to know if he is telling the truth.

The final story comes from Eric Hecker, who worked for the Navy and Raytheon and went to Antarctica to work security there. Hecker claims he saw a directed energy weapons system there that is capable of creating earthquakes. He claims it is the largest telescope that is also a phased array transmitter – a sort of air traffic control for UFOs – and is capable of faster than light communications. Hecker claims this weapons/communications system is above and beyond nations…it’s a transnational program that answers to no government.

The stories told by these men are pretty fascinating. I found Hecker’s the most chilling, Digna’s the most believable, Long’s the saddest, and Herrera’s the most bizarre and incomprehensible. Your mileage may vary.

As for the Battle for Disclosure as a whole, I found it to be a poorly constructed, muddled and jumbled mess of a cinematic venture. It is less a document designed to inform or convince than it is a money grab from those already converted to the Church of Greer.  

Battle for Disclosure, or any of Greer’s films for that matter, are not really useful for the majority of ufologists, nor are they a good place to start for newbies, as they are too fantastical and Greer is too aggressively grating and dubious a spokesman to be convincing.

The bottom line is, while I am immensely skeptical to the point of devout disbelief, I do hope that Steven Greer is right and that E.T. is coming to save our home and free us from the villains who currently rule our world, but that doesn’t make his documentaries good or worth watching or very informative. They are, for the most part, pretty much a waste of time….and if you’re a dope like me…a waste of money too.  

©2024