Screening Thu, Sept 14 at 8pm and Sat, Sept 16 at 1pm.

Ariel Phenomenon explores an African extraterrestrial encounter witnessed by over sixty schoolchildren in 1994. As a Harvard professor, a BBC war reporter, and past students investigate, they struggle to answer the question: “What happens when you experience something so extraordinary that nobody believes you?”

Ariel Phenomenon is the first to thoroughly document the account of over sixty schoolchildren at Ariel School in Ruwa, Zimbabwe, who, in 1994, witnessed an unidentified craft land outside their rural African schoolyard. Thanks to the courageous work of Dr. John E. Mack, who jeopardized his reputation as a Harvard psychiatrist, the mass-sighting event was made impossible to ignore.

What begins as an investigation transforms into something equally as remarkable: a genuinely human story that explores what happens when you experience something so extraordinary that nobody believes you.

In this first feature documentary about the incident, a young woman returns to the rural Ariel school – the place that, at the age of nine, shattered her reality. We meet a respected BBC war reporter who reluctantly covered the event, ultimately leading him, along with Dr. John Mack, to risk his career on the one story that haunted him the most.

With a cinematic score by Nathaniel Walcott (The Fault in Our Stars; member, Bright Eyes), and editing/writing by Christopher Seward of Fahrenheit 911, Sicko, and Sundance Grand Jury- winning One Child Nation, the film blends stunning wildlife cinematography and a poignant musical score to create a documentary well outside the expected genre.

Join the director and crew for a special two-day screening run, marking the 29th anniversary of the event. Followed by a Q and A with director Randall Nickerson.

Special Event: This is not a production of the Brattle Film Foundation. Brattle Passes Not Accepted