Mark Pilkington, author of the UFO meta-conspiracy classic Mirage Men, presents a curated journey through some of his favourite filmic artefacts from the flying saucer era and beyond.

With UFOs enjoying their most sustained period of US media attention since the 1940s, Pilkington explores how moving images have shaped our belief, doubt and fascination with the unexplained. While Hollywood and the Military Entertainment Complex continue to turn extraterrestrial encounters into spectacle, the most compelling UFO films are often far less polished.

Shot by startled witnesses using whatever technology was at hand, from 8mm film and VHS camcorders to smartphones and night vision equipment, these fragments create a kind of ‘UFO vérité’. Spanning more than 80 years, they form a parallel history of both the UFO phenomenon and our changing domestic media.

Sitting somewhere between evidence and illusion, these strange, blurry and ambiguous images can be surprisingly powerful. Paired with a convincing witness account, even the most inconclusive footage can provoke a wonderfully unsettling question: if this is real, what else aren’t we being told?