Best Evidence

Malmstrom AFB Case

2008-06-30T01:31:00.002-03:00

The Malmstrom AFB Case came in at #7 on the top ten.

Paul Kimball

Best Evidence at Retro UFO 3

2008-05-21T05:22:00.002-03:00

Yours truly at the Retro UFO 3 conference, which was held on the last weekend of April, 2008. Best Evidence was shown at the Conference, in the legendary UFO landmark the Integratron in landers,California, which was pretty darn cool! In this clip I'm talking about a brief conversation at a Christmas party I had with Geoff Regan, at the time a Canadian cabinet minister, and how I used the opportunity to talk to him about real UFO evidence, a few top cases, and the history of Canadian governmental interest in UFOs, and why it stopped in the late 1960s (what I call "The Condon Effect").

One note: the last question about UFOs asked in the House of Commons was in the 1970s, not the 1960s as I mistakenly stated at Retro UFO 3. Hey - nobody's perfect!

Paul Kimball

Best Evidence - 2008 EBE Award Winner!

2008-03-03T21:28:00.000-04:00

So, here I am in sunny Los Angeles, hanging out with my good pal Greg Bishop - not a cloud in the sky! Hurrah!!

The end of the International UFO Convention and Film Festival was great - super banquet, lots of nice folks, some very good films (and therefore some great competition), and a WIN for Best Evidence, in the category that probably meant the most to me, as a guy with a history degree - Best Historical Documentary. Lovely statue!

I can't remember what I said in my stumbling "aw shucks" acceptance speech, other than thanking my Mom & Dad in particular, and ending with "God Save the Queen", which was a running joke all week between we Canucks and Brits on one side, and our southern cousins the Yankee Doodles on the other. I thanked everyone in general who worked on the film, or who helped get it made, but the list of names was too long to be specific. However, here are some I absolutely should have mentioned, and who I wish had been there to see their hard work pay off:

Findlay Muir - DOP
John Rosborough - Post Audio & Music
Zan Rosborough - Post Audio
Jim Kimball - Co-Producer / Production Manager
Kris Lee McBride - Narrator
Thor Henrickson - On-Line Editor

Also, of course, Linda Wood and Ann MacKenzie at Film NS, which invested in the film, Andrew Mark Sewell at B7 Media in the UK (our distributor), and Charlotte Engel at Space: The Imagination Station, which commissioned it. Can't forget Nan MacDonald and Linda Kearney at the RBC. Finally, everyone who appeared in the film, including our chief consultant Brad Sparks, as well as Stan Friedman, Nick Pope, Don Ledger, Dick Hall, Bruce Maccabee, Lt. Col. Bruce Bailey, Capt. Robert Salas, Col. Charles Halt... it's a very long list!

The EBE belongs to them as much as me... but I get to keep it! ;-)

Thanks everyone, for making me look good!

Paul Kimball

Best Evidence - Draft Trailer

2008-01-09T07:56:00.000-04:00

A draft promotional trailer for Best Evidence.

Paul Kimball

Closing Segment of Best Evidence

2007-12-27T20:13:00.000-04:00

The closing segment from Best Evidence: Top 10 UFO Sightings.

Paul Kimball

Best Evidence at the 2007 X-Conference

2007-09-09T17:34:00.000-03:00

Kris Lee McBride and I leave Thursday for Washington, D.C., to attend the 2007 X-Conference, where I'll be screening Best Evidence and talking about the film, and answering questions, afterwards.

Also at the Conference will be Bruce Maccabee, Nick Pope, and Robert Salas, who all appear in the film. Bob has seen it already, but it will be interesting to see what Nick and Bruce make of the finished product. Their presentations, along with screenings of Best Evidence, makes the Conference worth attending if you're in the D.C. area from September 14th to 16th.

Here is a clip of one of the cases from Best Evidence... just as a teaser (this clip features Dr. Maccabee)!

And here is an outtake clip from my interview with Nick Pope, who speaks common sense as usual:

If you are at the X-Conference - and I encourage you to attend - make sure you track me down and say hello. I'm Canadian, after all - it's a requirement of our citizenship that we're polite and friendly! :-)

Paul Kimball

Fortean Times on Best Evidence

2007-07-24T14:37:00.000-03:00

The highly-regarded Fortean Times (UK) on Best Evidence:

In this hour-long programme, and also in his accompanying blog, Kimball takes a level-headed look at a number of well-known (and some not so well-known) cases. After the mass enthusiasm for UFOs created by fictional series like the X-Files, the resulting explosion of sensational 'documentaries', and outright hoaxes like the 'Alien Autopsy' footage, perhaps we will now start to see a more thoughtfu; and rational approach to ufology in the media. Despite including such contentious cases as Rendlesham, Kimball's film even appears to have been well received by many ufologists. Let's hope that this bodes well for the future of ufology.

Thanks to the FT for the notice - one can only hope that the film is the beginning of a more thoughtful approach to the UFO phenomenon by my colleagues in the media. Time will tell.

Paul Kimball

Greg Bishop's review of Best Evidence

2007-07-15T21:27:00.000-03:00

Greg Bishop reviews Best Evidence at UFO Mystic. An excerpt:

Even if I did not know Kimball personally, I would have given a big thumbs-up to Best Evidence, if only for its dispassionate premise that something which shows intelligence, but is not human, has been racing through our skies for centuries, and occasionally landing on the ground. It’s the one to show your friends who can’t understand why anyone would take the UFO subject seriously

You can read the full review here.

Thanks for the kind words, Greg.

Paul Kimball

Best Evidence review by Jason Gammon

2007-07-08T22:24:00.000-03:00

Jason Gammon, of the Boy In The Machine blog, has posted a review of Best Evidence. Here's an excerpt:

The film's creator, one Paul Kimball, not only imbues the film with a sense of intrigue and discovery, but also provides needed hints about how the ignoring of the phenomena by mainstream society may eventually come at a price. Viewers of the film will not be tantalized by rumor and innuendo, nor will the viewer be witness to wild accusations with no accompanying proof. Instead, only the cold, hard facts are presented along with amazing computer-animated special effects.

His conclusion?

'Best Evidence: Top 10 UFO Sightings' is not just 'perhaps', but most definitely 'is' the must see UFO documentary of the decade.

Thanks, Jason!

You can read the entire review here.

Paul Kimball

Kimball - Binnall Summit?

2007-06-04T17:55:00.000-03:00

Is there a Paul Kimball - Tim Binnall summit looming?

What would such an earth-shattering meeting between the creator of Best Evidence and the self-proclaimed "America's creep" mean for ufology, and paranormal research in general?

Who can say?

But it would definitely be a hoot, that will involve lots of beer, Canada's smallest province (PEI), and lots of beer. Oh yeah - lots of talk about the weird and wacky world of the paranormal, too. And the Red Sox.

And beer. Did I mention the beer? And not that watered down Yankee "beer" that Binnall usually drinks. I'm talking the real thing - 100% Cancon!

Fingers crossed that this momentous event (tentatively known as the "Kimbinnall Summit") comes to pass this summer.

In the meantime, you can hear Binnall and yours truly pontificating about Best Evidence here, about baseball here (in an episode that also includes Loren Coleman, Stan Friedman, Adam Gorightly and Greg Bishop, all talking about baseball), and UFOs and ufology in general here and here.

And if you want to hear Tim on the other side of the microphone, i.e. as the interviewee, check out his interview with Red Ice Radio.

Paul Kimball

Best Evidence - Top 10 Poll

2007-06-03T22:03:00.001-03:00

So - do you agree with the experts?

Best Evidence - DVD Update #1

2007-06-03T19:05:00.000-03:00

I've received a lot of questions in the past two weeks asking when Best Evidence will be available on DVD. The short answer is that I don't know for sure, but I suspect that it will be early fall. At the end of the day, it's up to our distributor, B7 Media, to put a deal together.

In the meantime, however, I'll be keeping busy assembling and recording the bonus materials for what will be at least a 2 DVD set. What will those materials include?

1. Expanded interview clips from people who appear in the film, including Dick Hall, Brad Sparks, Bruce Maccabee, Don Ledger, Mac Tonnies and Stan Friedman, talking about both the cases that made the top 10, and some of those that didn't.

2. Interviews with some of the people who made the film, including yours truly, Director of Photography Findlay Muir, music composer John Rosborough, animator Breandan McGrath, and narrator Kris Lee McBride. You'll be able to hear how it all came together.

3. Interviews from previous Redstar UFO-related films, including outtake clips of the late Karl Pflock, as well as Nick Redfern, Kevin Randle, and others.

4. Finally, the case that would have been ranked 10th on the list if i hadn't substituted the Nuremberg case, in a full segment.

Keep an eye out here for updates as the summer moves along.

Paul Kimball

The Condon Report - the best evidence ignored

2007-06-02T00:16:00.000-03:00

One of the questions I got in the post screening Q & A session at the Oxford Theatre on Wednesday evening related to the seeming lack of interest by science, politicians and the media in the UFO phenomenon. "Why is that the case," asked the questioner, "if theUFO phenomenon is so widespread and prevalent?"

My answer is simple - everything changed with the Condon Report in the late 1960s, which was a scientific hatchet job and a USAF whitewash of the first order. I've written about what I call the "Condon Effect" before (see: The Condon Effect in Canada and Combatting the Condon Effect - The Sturrock Gambit), and how it provided a seemingly respectable cover for people who didn't really want to take a look at the UFO phenomenon - especially the evidence, which in the investigations conducted by the staff of the University of Colorado Project (i.e. the Condon group) showed a significant percentage of unexplained cases, which was completely at odds with the conclusions drawn by Condon himself.

Dick Hall was with NICAP back during the time of the Colorado Project. When I interviewed him for Best Evidence, I asked him about Condon, and his investigation. Here are some of Dick's thoughts:

If anyone cites the Condon Report to you as proof that there's nothing to the UFO phenomenon (as was once done in the Canadian House of Commons), make sure you tell him or her that you haven't been fooled by the un-scientific conclusions cooked up by Condon.

Or, as I wrote in The Condon Effect in Canada:

The Condon Report, which was the result of a two-year “scientific” study of the UFO phenomenon commissioned by the United States Air Force (known formally as The University of Colorado UFO Project), was released in 1968. Condon was the director. Virtually from the beginning, critics (including some of the committee’s members) charged that Condon and coordinator Robert Low were biased. When the report came out, in concluded that there were prosaic explanations for all UFO cases, and that there was no evidence to support the Extraterrestrial Hypothesis. The Air Force, the American media (in general), and the scientific community (again, in general), accepted the report as the definitive word on the subject. Project Blue Book was terminated shortly after its release. Prominent critics such as Dr. Peter Sturrock, Dr. James E. McDonald, Stanton Friedman, and Dr. J. Allen Hynek, have all correctly noted that the report’s conclusions – which were authored by Condon himself – were sharply at variance with the evidence (Condon did not investigate any of the cases himself), which showed that 30% of the cases studied were classed as “unknowns,” higher even than earlier Air Force studies. As Sturrock wrote, “This report has clouded all attempts at legitimate UFO research since its release.” Little has changed in the almost four decades since the Report was released, as governments, the media, and many in the scientific community still cite it as proof that UFOs are not worth serious study. The Condon Report represents everything that science should not be.

In short, make sure you tell the person who cites the Condon Report that unlike Dr. Condon you prefer to keep an open mind - which is what any reasonable person, when faced with a bona fide mystery or unexplained phenomenon, must do.

Paul Kimball

Best Evidence... on tour?

2007-06-01T18:17:00.001-03:00

Someone asked me at the Best Evidence screening the other night what the next step was.

"The next step?" I asked. "What do you mean?"

"Where are you taking the film from here?" he replied.

At the time, I didn't have much of an answer. The distributors will work to sell the film into other territories beyond Canada and New Zealand, and at some point in the future there will be a DVD available for commercial sale, with all sorts of extras (when I have the time to edit them). But until the fall at least, unless you live in Canada and New Zealand, you're out of luck if you want to see the film.

Fortunately, however, the fellow I was talking to had an idea - "why not," he asked, "take the film on the road? You could travel across North America, screening it in town after town, and then taking questions afterwards."

Hmm...

Having pondered this suggestion for two days now, it strikes me as an intriguing idea, and one I'd be happy to undertake, just for the fun of it if nothing else (so long as all my expenses were covered). I would consider it an extended summer "ufological" vacation.

I leave it to readers, or people they know, or perhaps some booking agent somewhere, to determine whether there would be:

a) interest in some sort of tour (judging by the response at the BE screening here, I would say "yes"); and

b) whether there's anyone out there who wants to organize it, or bring me out to your MUFON chapter, or local group, or church hall, or whatever, for a one-off screening and chat.

If there is any interest, folks know where to find me. Like I said, "have suitcase, will travel". Finally, as anyone who has seen me in action will tell you, I put on a good show!

Paul Kimball

Kris McBride at the BE premiere

2007-05-31T23:29:00.000-03:00

Best Evidence narrator Kris McBride blogs about the premiere last night here.

Paul Kimball

Stuart Miller of UFO Review on Best Evidence

2007-05-31T14:47:00.000-03:00

I sent a review copy of Best Evidence to Stuart Miller, the publisher and editor of UFO Review, in the United Kingdom. Here is his "review" posted today at the UFO Updates mailing list (full post found here).

Here at last is a documentary produced not only by someone who knows what he's talking about but who has also delivered a fact-driven, objective piece of work featuring people who also know what they're talking about.
Simple, clear, unsensational, to the point; an outstanding piece of work and a piece of work we can use to point others to as a perfect example of what the subject of UAPs/UFOs is all about.
Well done Paul and thank you.

Here is the response I sent to UFO Updates:

Stuart:

It's not really "Paul Kimball's Best Evidence" - it's Brad Sparks', Dick Hall's, and Stan Friedman's, and Kevin Randle's, and Bruce Maccabee's, and Nick Redfern's, and Nick Pope's, and Mac Tonnies', and Don Ledger's, and... well, you get the picture. They're the ones who, with one exception (#10, the 1561 Nuremberg case) picked the cases. I was just one voice among many in that regard.

Further, when it came to the actual making of the film, again, I'm just the quarterback. Kudos to the rest of the team - folks like John Rosborough (post audio and music), Zan Rosborough (post audio), Findlay Muir (DOP), Jim Kimball (co-producer), Christine Boss (production coordinator), Brian Howald and Breandan McGrath (head animators), Thor Henrickson (on-line editor), and of course the good folks at Space who commissioned the film (especially Charlotte Engel), the NSFDC who provided much of the financing (especially Ann MacKenzie and Linda Wood), and B7 Media in the UK who are distributing the film (especially Andrew Mark Sewell). Finally, super kudos to actress Kris Lee McBride, who narrated the film and gave it a unique "voice" - i.e. young and female. You don't hear that in many docs, alas - especially UFO-related docs. My mom loved it!

In the end, of course, there are the people to whom the film truly belongs - the witnesses, including the three who appear in the film, Lieutenant Colonel Bruce Bailey (RB47), Colonel Charles Halt (Rendlesham), and Captain Robert Salas (Malmstrom).

On behalf of all of the above, my friend - thank you.

Paul Kimball

Best Evidence - Big Screen Premiere

2007-05-31T00:10:00.000-03:00

One hundred and eleven Haligonians, according to the official count by the Oxford Theatre staff, came out this evening to catch the screening of Best Evidence and Famous Monster at the historic Oxford, the last remaining non-big box, "cookie cutter" cinema in Halifax. That's roughly twice what the Nova Scotia Film Development Corporation usually gets to these free screenings of local films. As was clear from the post-screening Q & A, as well as the number of calls fielded earlier in the day, most were there to see "the UFO film", which was certainly gratifying. They also saw a really good biopic of sci-fi uber-fan Forrest Ackerman by Mike MacDonald, which I think is going to do very well for him in the long run.

Stan Friedman was on hand as a special guest - he showed up at 6 pm sharp to set up his table in the lobby, and it was clear when people started to wander in at about 6:20 pm that a number of them had come to see him as well as the films. There was a steady stream of people who wanted to talk to him, shake his hand, buy a book or DVD (or two or three). As always, Stan was gracious with each and every one of them. Agree with him or disagree with him on cases, or the ETH, or the UFO phenomenon in general, but I don't think one can dispute that Stan puts on a good show, or that he's a heck of a nice guy, and he has a large base of devoted (and hard-earned) fans.

Also on hand were some of Halifax's brightest young cultural industry professionals, including filmmakers John Rosborough and Jason Eisener, my brother Jim (who co-produced the film), ace theatre critic Ron Foley MacDonald, actress Kris Lee McBride (that's her in the photo at left), who narrated Best Evidence (and saw the film for the first time this evening), and local theatre impressario David Connellan. Incidentally, Eisener achieved fame recently as the winner of the Quentin Tarantino / Robert Rodriguez sponsored "Grindhouse trailer" competition at South by Southwest, for his trailer Hobo With a Shotgun. Apparently, Jason is a UFO aficionado as well as a up-and-coming young filmmaker. Also present was NSFDC CEO Ann MacKenzie, just back from Cannes, as well as Program Adminstrator Linda Wood (my fiance) and Abbi Hennigar, who organized the screening.

A great time was had by all, and there were still at least a half dozen questions waiting to be asked when we finally had to wrap up the Q & A at 9:00 pm because the crowd for the 9:30 screening of the regular movie was starting to arrive. I had a chance to chat with some folks in the lobby afterwards, as did Stan, and we probably could have gone into the wee hours of the morning talking about UFOs and the film. There was a great deal of interest in the film, and in the UFO phenomenon in general, which for me was really gratifying.

Thanks to everyone who showed up and made the evening a big success, and super kudos to the NSFDC for programming Best Evidence this time out!

Paul Kimball

Best Evidence on the Big Screen

2007-05-30T16:09:00.000-03:00

Best Evidence makes its way to the big screen tonight at Halifax's historic Oxford Theatre, for a one night only double bill with Mike MacDonald's new documentary Famous Monster. The screening is sponsored by the Nova Scotia Film Development Corporation, which invested in both films, and without which none of us in this province could do what we do.

Now, I'm going to admit to a little secret here - no matter how many times I've seen my name, or a film's title, or one of my bands' names, up on a marquee, I still get a bit of a rush. It's fun, and in a way it makes it all seem worthwhile.

Tonight, some of the best in the the film biz in Halifax will be there to see a film about UFOs - actors, producers, directors, government types, as well as friends and family and anyone else who pops in (it's a free screening, so if you're in town, come on down). Kris McBride will be there, for what will be her first time on the big screen, but not her last I'm sure. Stan Friedman is in town as a special guest - he'll be answeing questions with Mike and I after the screening. My folks are coming. My fiance (who is one of the good folks at the NSFDC). And so on.

In short, tonight is going to be a good night.

Unless the projector breaks down... ;-)

I'll post pics and a synopsis in the days to come.

Paul Kimball

Best Evidence - the next 10?

2007-05-28T17:28:00.001-03:00

A lot of people who have seen Best Evidence want me to make a sequel... sort of a "Best Evidence II: The Next Ten". I don't think that's going to happen, for a lot of reasons, but the question of which other cases polled highly, i.e. just missed being in the top ten, is an interesting one, and helps illustrate the depth of quality sightings. I'm working on an article for The Anomalist these days that will discuss some of these cases in greater detail, but here's a few that were close to making the final cut of the film, and which all deserve a close look by anyone who thinks there's nothing to the UFO phenomenon.

Vins-sur-caramy, France (1957)

Minot AFB, United States (1968) - well profiled in the ABC special Seeing is Believing

Socorro, United States (1964)

JAL 1628, over Alaska (1986)

Stephen Michalak sighting, Canada (1967)

Washington "flap", United States (1952)

Father Gill sighting, New Guinea (1959)

Trindade, Brazil (1958)

Belgian "flap", Belgium (1989)

That's just the tip of the iceberg. As I've said in radio interviews, over seventy cases received votes in my poll of UFO researchers, and the vast majority of them are good, solid cases that have yet to be convincingly explained by the people who would like you to believe that the UFO phenomenon is just a lot of smoke and mirrors and misidentifications.

Paul Kimball

Kris Lee McBride's new blog

2007-05-28T16:02:00.000-03:00

Best Evidence narrator Kris Lee McBride has a new blog, which you can find here. It's a good place to find out about who she is, and what she's interested in, and to keep track of what she's up to with her busy and successful career - for example, updates on "Doing Time", the new play by Mac Tonnies that she'll be starring in, and I'll be directing, this fall.

Welcome to the blogosphere, Kris!

Now, if only I could somehow convince Stan Friedman to sign up.

Paul Kimball

Strange Days... Indeed, talking about Best Evidence

2007-05-28T16:00:00.000-03:00

FYI, I'm on Strange Days... Indeed with Errol Bruce-Knapp this week discussing Best Evidence in what was, I think, one of my better interviews.

You can tune in here, although if you're not already a subscriber, you'll have to sign up for a nominal fee. But it's worth it for what is perhaps the longest running, and maybe the best, talk-radio show devoted solely to the UFO phenomenon. The shows in the Archives are worth the price of admission all by themselves!

Paul Kimball

Stan Friedman to be special guest at Best Evidence screening

2007-05-24T18:35:00.000-03:00

Renowned UFO researcher & author Stanton T. Friedman, M.Sc., known as the "Father of Roswell", will be making a rare Halifax appearance at the screening of Best Evidence / Famous Monster next Wednesday, May 30th, at 7 pm.

Stan will be in the theatre lobby at 6:30 pm to meet folks, and will be part of the post-screening Q & A session, along with Mike MacDonald and myself. Stan will also have a limited number of autographed copies of his books Crash at Corona: The Definitive Study of the Roswell Incident and Top Secret / Majic on hand for sale.

Stan was featured prominently in Best Evidence, commenting on the Nuremberg, Yukon, Skylab III, Santa Barbara Channel, Malmstrom AFB, Tehran and RB47 cases.

A fun night just got that much more interesting!

Paul Kimball

BE Narrator Kris Lee McBride finishes run with acclaimed production of The Whores

2007-05-24T18:31:00.000-03:00

Last weekend, actress Kris Lee McBride, the narrator for Best Evidence, performed in a critically-acclaimed and often sold-out run with a great ensemble cast in The Whores, an original play about prostitution, by Halifax author and playright Charles Crosby (italics, mine).

You can listen to a CBC radio feature piece on the play here. You can read a Chronicle Herald article about The Whores here.

I caught the play on Friday night, with local theatre critic Ron Foley MacDonald and pal Graham Simms. It was sold out (they turned people away at the door), and the cast got a well-deserved standing ovation at the end. Kris was super - I'm proud to say that I was the first person to cast her in Halifax (Marat). My friends Gillian Ferrier and Veronica Reynolds were great as well, as were the other two actresses, Lynn Reicker and Stephanie MacDonald.

Kudos to the whole cast, and the folks at Taboo Theatre, for staging a challenging and thought-provoking production.

Paul Kimball

Best Evidence screening in Halifax

2007-05-20T18:17:00.000-03:00

The Nova Scotia Film Development Corporation is sponsoring a screening of Best Evidence, along with Mike MacDonald's latest documentary, Famous Monster, about sci-fi legend Forrest J. Ackerman, at the Oxford Theatre, Halifax, Nova Scotia, May 30th, 7 pm.

Admission is FREE!

Best Evidence features some of the world's leading UFO experts, including Stanton Friedman, Dr. Bruce Maccabee, Nick Pope, and Mac Tonnies, as well as a number of very credible military witnesses, discussing the cases that the debunkers never want to talk about.

Famous Monster features interviews with many sci-fi legends, including
Ray Bradbury, Roger Corman and Joe Dante, as well as - of course - Ackerman himself.

For more info on Mike's film, check out this Toronto Star article, or Mike's website.

Paul Kimball

BEhind the Scenes - B7 Media

2007-05-17T19:49:00.000-03:00

Our British distributor, B7 Media, has already sold Best Evidence to TVNZ in New Zealand, with more territories hopefully to come in the months ahead.

They're top notch folks, with decades of experience between them in the film and television industry, and they've been very supportive of Best Evidence from the beginning.

I've been dealing with Andrew Mark Sewell, the co-founder of the company. Here's his bio:

Andrew Mark Sewell , former Creative Director at BBC Worldwide, was a key architect in defining the editorial and commercial strategy for exploiting BBC interactive content globally. A Writer, Producer and Executive Producer on a range of cross-media projects, including the UKTV simulcast event Haunted (short-listed for the Montreux e-Rose ), Dig Egypt, The Old Grey Whistle Test and Tomorrow's World+. Other credits include documentaries Echoes of the Past ( UK History ), Barcelona Burnout ( Men and Motors ) and Secrets of the Paranormal. Most recently he was the UK producer of critically acclaimed feature Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont staring Joan Plowright, Anna Massey, Robert Lang, Rupert Friend and Zoe Tapper.

Why "B7" as a name, you might ask? Simple. They have the rights to the classic sci-fi series Blake's 7, and are resurrecting it as a series of radio dramas for Sci-Fi UK, with an eye to an eventual re-launch of the series, updated for the 21st century, a la Battlestar Galactica. As a big fan of Blake's 7 as a kid, I'm thrilled to be separated from the new series by one degree.

You can listen in to the radio dramas here. It's great stuff, and deserves to make the leap to the small screen as soon as possible.

I'm proud that Best Evidence is a small part of the B7 universe, and look forward to working with them again in the future.

Paul Kimball

Kris Lee McBride profiled in Halifax Daily News

2007-05-17T16:43:00.000-03:00

There are days when I'm reminded that, whatever my myriad flaws, one of my strengths is an eye for talented people.

Like Kris Lee McBride, who is profiled today in The Halifax Daily News.

Someday in the not too distant future, she'll just be "famous", without the "almost" - which will lead people to revisit her first television gig, on Best Evidence.

Kris Lee McBride

HEATHER SAWERS
The Daily News

AGE: 23

HOMETOWN: Sussex, N.B. (although she lived in Halifax while she was in elementary school)

RESIDES: Halifax

PASSION: Acting

WHAT'S NEW: She's currently playing Lori in The Whores, Charles Crosby's new production that opened yesterday and runs through Saturday at the Bus Stop Theatre. "It's a more substantial role than I've had (before)," McBride said. "My family's coming up to see it, so I'm so excited."

GETTING STARTED: "I had always been in plays in elementary school, but almost everybody is," McBride said. "When I got to Grade 11, I spent a lot of time thinking about what I could do as a career and what would make me happy. And acting was the only thing that I said, 'I would really want to do this full-time for my whole life.'"

ON AUDITIONING: McBride auditioned for many theatre schools before eventually attending - and earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts from - University of Windsor, and felt intimidated by the students who had attended performing arts high schools. "But I'm good at taking direction, and that helps a lot. They would say 'Try your monologue like this, and I could.' I think that probably helped me."

INSPIRATION: Julia Roberts. "It's not that I think she's the most brilliant actor, but she's good, and I want to be as famous as her," McBride said. "I also like Drew Barrymore a lot. She tends to play the same kind of roles, but she does what she does well."

HANGING OUT: She likes to go running around her Halifax neighbourhood. "I like to choose a different route each time, because then sometimes I get lost. Then I end up running further than I normally would because I need to find my way back home."

FAVE BOOK:Volkswagen Blues by Jacques Poulin

FAVE TV SHOWS:Grey's Anatomy.

FAVE MOVIES:E.T. "I think it's brilliant."

ON YOUR iPOD: Counting Crows and Joel Plaskett

FAVE FOOD: Cheese - part of her e-mail address is actually "cheesefreak."

GUILTY PLEASURE: "Cheese, because it's high in everything you're supposed to stay away from."

WORDS OF WISDOM FOR ASPIRING ACTORS: "Make sure you're always nice to people. If people you work with remember, 'Oh, she was really nice, and always on time,' they're going to want to use you in other projects. You don't want to burn any bridges, even if you don't know they're bridges at the time."

Congratulations to Kris for some well-deserved recognition!

Paul Kimball

Best Evidence: Reviews - Dave Furlotte

2007-05-16T18:37:00.000-03:00

On last week's episode of the podcast Strange Days... Indeed, author and commentator Dave Furlotte talked at length about Best Evidence: Top 10 UFO Sightings. He said:

A magnificent documentary... It was perfect. It was absolutely
perfect.

Wow.

Thanks Dave, most sincerely, for the high praise. Glad to hear that you liked the film, and that it resonated with you.

Paul Kimball

Strange Days... Indeed

2007-05-16T17:21:00.000-03:00

I'm being interviewed tomorrow afternoon for an upcoming Strange Days... Indeed podcast with my friend Errol Bruce-Knapp. The photo at left shows Errol, myself, and a mysterious alien explorer back in September, 2006, in Toronto, where we met for drinks and Mexican food.

We'll be talking about Best Evidence, of course.

When the podcast is up, I'll provide full details.

Paul Kimball

Best Evidence narrator Kris Mcbride debuts in The Whores tonight

2007-05-16T17:15:00.000-03:00

Kris Lee McBride, the narrator for Best Evidence, appears in the new play The Whores, by Halifax author and playright Charles Crosby (italics, mine), which premieres tonight at The Bus Stop Theatre on Gottingen Street, here in Halifax.

For a write-up on the show, and details as to time and location, check today's Chronicle Herald, which also features a nice picture of Kris and one of the other members of a great ensemble case in the play, who will be familiar to some UFO afficianados - Veronica Reynolds.

I'll be attending tomorrow night's show with some of the cast from Marat, the play I directed back in February and March. If you live in the Halifax area, check out The Whores if you get the chance. Given the quality of the actresses involved, I'm sure it will be something special!

Paul Kimball

Paul Kimball discusses Best Evidence on Coast to Coast... sort of

2007-05-09T12:48:00.000-03:00

Now, as you read that headline, don't get too excited - I haven't been asked to return to Coast to Coast to discuss Best Evidence. However, I was on last May for three hours, during which time I addressed a number of UFO-related subjects, including Best Evidence, which I was in the process of filming (I actually did the phone interview from my hotel room in Huntington Beach, California the same day I interviewed Brad Sparks).

You can listen to excerpts from that program here, including one about Best Evidence.

Of course, if you think George Noory should have me back on Coast to talk about the finished film, drop the good folks at Coast to Coast a line and let them know. Better yet, tell them to put together a Best Evidence roundtable, with Stan Friedman, Bruce Maccabee, yours truly, Nick Pope, Mac Tonnies, and Brad Sparks (if Brad were willing to do it). Now that would be a great show!

Paul Kimball

Animating Tehran 1976 - Vol. II

2007-05-09T12:28:00.000-03:00

Here are some more screen captures from one of the cases in Best Evidence.

Anyone familiar with the political geography of 1976 will realize that the map shown above is in error. Don't worry, folks - we corrected it in the final version. What you see here is a first draft, or, as we sometimes say, a blooper.

Paul Kimball

Press - Vol. I

2007-05-09T12:10:00.000-03:00

From www.aliant.net:

Best Evidence: UFO's Top 10
by Ron Foley Macdonald

Nova Scotia documentarian Paul Kimball's latest television film project--Best Evidence: The Top Ten UFO Stories--will premiere Thursday, May 10th at 10:00 pm AST on Space: The Imagination Channel.

Kimball is no stranger to the subject. He previously produced and directed the non-fiction films Do You Believe In Majic (sic), Fields Of Fear and Stanton. T. Friedman Is Real! for the same specialty television outlet. Each of those documentaries has found new life through strong internet sales; the filmmaker himself has become a regular on the para-normal circuit, appearing on North American radio (Coast To Coast Syndicated) and at conferences in both the US (Aztec, New Mexico), and Britain (UFO Con, Manchester).

Although it was commissioned by the Space Channel almost two years ago, the film is being completed in the midst of a massive revival in all things UFO-ish. Since last fall, we've been in the midst of a rash of unexplained sightings all around the world. And both the British and French governments have decided to open their formerly secret UFO files, leading to a flood of interest in the possibilities of extraterrestrial visitations.

With an Earth-like planet finally being discovered by the scientists last month in a relatively close solar system, and some spectacular photos of Jupiter and its fascinating moons having been released just last week, the groundwork has been laid for another round of speculation on whether there is life beyond Earth's confines.

Best Evidence also comes to the small screen at a perfect conjunction of exceptional UFO anniversaries. 2007 is the 60th anniversary of the granddaddy of all strange encounters, Roswell in New Mexico in 1947. It's also 40 years since what is known as 'Canada's Roswell', the Shag Harbour UFO Incident in Nova Scotia in 1967. More recently, 2007 marks the 10th year since the famous 1997 'Phoenix Lights' phenomenon.

Paul Kimball will treat all of these famous incidents and more in Best Evidence. And while he can't quite rationally explain all of them, the film examines all the known facts and context of each case, seriously examining just why these particular possible visitations have ended up on his 'best of' list.

In an interview that took place not long before the looming broadcast date, the Bluenose filmmaker revealed just how he managed to come up with this top ten: ' I simply sent out requests to all my UFO-ology contacts around the world. They sent my their top tens, and--completely un-scientifically, of course--I compiled the poll results into a concrete list.'

'It wasn't hard to put together....everyone pretty well agreed on the first few', the writer/director said in between sound editing, 'Getting to the bottom of the list was a bit more of a challenge....I originally started with the aim of accumulating 20, but then I windowed it down to a more manageable 10.'

I asked him about his contacts, some of which had appeared last fall at a UFO conference Kimball put on at St. Mary's University: 'Yes, well many of them I already knew.... some, in fact, will be interview subjects in the film! Mac Tonnies, for one, and Nick Pope, known over there as the Fox Mulder of the UK and a former official in the British Government's Ministry of Defence.'

After finishing up the details on Best Evidence, Paul Kimball is hardly resting on his para-normal laurels. For a change of pace, he will be shooting a documentary later this spring for Bravo TV. It's a performance piece on two classical musicians entitled Synchronicity, which, despite the title, has very little to do with the pop band the Police (who just happened to have returned to live performance this summer).

It's a nod to the filmmaker's parallel life as a musician. A few years ago he produced and directed two seasons of intimate live chamber music by some of Canada's fast-rising young talents entitled The Classical Now, also for Bravo. Kimball's past also includes writing for and leading one of Halifax's best-remembered alternative pop bands, Julia's Rain.

For more information about Paul Kimball's film projects, check out http://www.redstarfilms.blogspot.com/.

Best Evidence and Debunkers

2007-05-08T23:26:00.000-03:00

When you see Best Evidence, you may well ask yourself - where are the usual "debunkers"?

Simple answer - they're not there.

In every film I've made about the UFO phenomenon / paranormal before this one, I've always given something close to equal time to both sides. In Stanton T. Friedman, Karl Pflock, Vaughn Rees and Kevin Randle all questioned aspects of Stan's work and beliefs. In Do You Believe in Majic, Karl once again had his shot. In Aztec 1948, it was Karl again, this time very effectively. In Fields of Fear, Kevin was on hand to counter the arguments of those who find something paranormal about so-called "cattle mutilations".

In short, I've established my bona fides as an even-handed filmmaker on this subject. I have nothing to prove in that regard.

This allowed me to take a different approach with Best Evidence. The job I took on here was not to give both sides a fair shot. Instead, it was to make a case that the evidence demands that the UFO phenomenon be taken seriously by the mainstream. In an interview I did with Stuart Miller for UFO Review last year, I half-jokingly referred to myself as Ufology's "Crown prosecutor" (at the time I was going after the exopols). In Best Evidence, my target was the indifference of the mainstream establishment, and the condescension of fundamentalist debunkers like Seth Shostak - you know, the guys who harp on Roswell ad nauseum, as if it was the only UFO case on record, while all the time ignoring cases like RB47, or Tehran.

Why do they do that?

Simple - because they can't explain those cases, so it's easier to just not talk about them.

Frankly, that ticks me off. Intellectual dishonesty always does.

So, my job in Best Evidence was to throw ten cases at them, and say, "hey, if you can explain all ten of these, then I'll shut up - but if you can't, then maybe you should put a sock in your high-handed dismissals of the UFO phenomenon, and take a closer look at it with an open mind."

I took the role of an advocate - not of a theory, like the ETH, or EDH, or whatever, but rather of the need to look more closely at the UFO phenomenon, and to treat it with the respect that quality, unexplained cases deserve.

Let's see if they have the guts and intellectual integrity to join that discussion.

Paul Kimball

Best Evidence vs. the USAF

2007-05-07T16:20:00.000-03:00

The United States Air Force takes it on the chin in Best Evidence, particularly when some of their absurd explanations for UFOs are contrasted with the facts of certain cases. For example, in the RB47 case, we point out that the USAF "explained" the case as a civilian airliner, to which we reply:

As far as the United States Air Force was concerned, when its top crews, who were charged with protecting the security of the nation in the midst of the Cold War, and who often came face to face with the enemy, saw something like this [note: here we see an animated recreation of the UFO], they were really just mistaking it for a civilian airliner. If that was true, any sensible Air Force should have grounded those crews immediately, but instead they kept on flying - so long as they stayed quiet about what they really saw in the skies above us.

Kapow!

Paul Kimball

The Kaku Moment

2007-05-07T15:51:00.000-03:00

Here's an interesting question for readers - of the following people, who all appear in Best Evidence, which one do you think I gave the "Michio Kaku" moment to, i.e. the final word?

Stanton Friedman
Mac Tonnies
Nick Pope
Don Ledger
Dick Hall
Bruce Maccabee
Brad Sparks

Did I go with a classic researcher, like Friedman or Hall, or with a high profile guy like Pope, or with a newer voice, like Tonnies?

You'll find out Thursday, but I can safely say that the person I picked absolutely nailed it.

Here's a brief quote from their statement:

"Whatever UFOs might ultimately prove to be, and we might never find out, it seems to me that they are definitely worthy of scientific consideration, if for no other reason than they effect how we think, and how we perceive the universe."

You should be able to figure out who it is from that line alone, or at the very least narrow the suspects down a bit.

Paul Kimball

"Kimball of Canada" on Binnall of America

2007-05-07T12:26:00.000-03:00

Last night I did a 2+ hour interview with Tim Binnall of Binnall of America about Best Evidence, which will be up and available on his site sometime Thursday, to coincide with the premiere of Best Evidence here in Canada.

Maybe it was the lack of sleep, or the weeks of stress, but we really rolled last night. We covered everything from some of the best cases, to some that didn't make it, to the process of how they were selected. We also discussed in depth the process by which the film was actually made, which was a lot of fun for me, because I rarely get to discuss that end of things in interviews. We also discussed the toll the process wrought on me (boo hoo, poor Paul), and other personal stuff (er... but not too personal). Somewhere along the line I also think I managed to politely criticize our American cousins for being a bit insular in their outlook on the world, which is why I was happy to see that only four of the top ten cases were American - it will serve as a reminder that the UFO phenomenon is worldwide in scope.

I also let loose with pointed comments about Seth Shostack and SETI, and Linda Moulton Howe, and told some stories of how I goofed while making the film, including the real story about why there are no scenes from Rendlesham Forest in the film, despite the fact that Rendlesham is in the program, and the fact that I actually spent a day and a considerable amount of money filming in Rendlesham in June, 2006.

My favourite bits? There are two.

The first is when I talk about Rendlesham Forest, which is one of the coolest places I've ever been. It's spooky, and creepy, and we had a run in with a black helicopter, and I discuss how I would love to go back and just spend a night camping in the woods, to see what it was like (and to see if I saw anything).

But my favourite moment came when Tim graciously gave me the chance to "put over" some of the people who worked on the film - Brian Howald, Breandan McGrath, Thor Henrikson, Kris McBride, Jim Kimball, Findlay Muir, John and Zan Rosborough, and others. I don't get a chance to do that on radio much either - thanks Tim!

So, tune in folks. It's a wild ride on Binnall of America this week in a very special episode that Tim has called "Kimball of Canada". Even if you don't listen, pop over Thursday and check out his website, which I understand is being re-designed for one day only in the "Kimball of Canada" mold. :-)

Paul Kimball

In the Studio with the Voice of Best Evidence

2007-05-02T19:38:00.000-03:00

Here are a couple more shots of the voice of Best Evidence, Kris Lee McBride, working in the studio:

I've been working on this film so long, she started as a blonde and finished as a brunette!

We're working 24/7 right now to finish the film. Whee!!

Paul Kimball

Nick Pope - What Makes a "Best Evidence" UFO Case

2007-04-30T11:59:00.000-03:00

This is an outtake of British UFO researcher Nick Pope talking about what makes a "best evidence" UFO case.

You won't see this clip in the film, but it will probably be on the DVD as a bonus segment.

Paul Kimball

Animating - Rendlesham

2007-04-30T09:19:00.000-03:00

Here are a couple of screen captures from the animation for the Rendlesham Forest segment:

Things are moving along nicely in the final, final home stretch. I'm sure the good folks at Space are getting a bit antsy that I haven't delivered yet, but we're nearly there.

Which would explain why I'm basically running on Diet Coke and fumes right now. There's a "crash" coming when this is all done, but it won't be an alien spacecraft! ;-)

Paul Kimball

The Consultants - Maccabee and Friedman

2007-04-29T14:36:00.000-03:00

A couple of frame captures of two of the Best Evidence consultants, Dr. Bruce Maccabee and Stan Friedman.

As you can see, I deliberately eschewed the stereotypical "dark room with mood lighting" backdrop that many UFO documentaries favour, and interviewed people in their own homes, or other similar surroundings (in Nick Pope's case, outside the British House of Commons, which was just two blocks from his office at the Ministry of Defence). I wanted what they said to be what people remembered - not the background.

Paul Kimball

Animating - Malmstrom AFB case

2007-04-29T09:08:00.000-03:00

A clip from the segment on the Malmstrom missile base case:

Here's a screen capture from the same case:

And another:

In terms of the overall production of each of the ten segments, the Malmstrom case is one of my favourites.

Paul Kimball

Animating... Tehran 1976

2007-04-29T04:02:00.000-03:00

As a sneak preview, here are a couple of screen captures of the animation for one of the Top 10 cases - the Iranian jet fighter incident of 1976.

I'm sure the second one will be a big hit in modern-day Iran!

Paul Kimball

BEhind the Scenes - John Rosborough

2007-04-28T10:50:00.000-03:00

Go home and watch Star Wars. Pretty cool.

Now, try it without the music. Or the sound effects.

Not so cool, to say the least. Without his theme, Darth Vader is just another Frankenstein clone with black plastic armour.

Sound design is an integral part of any film or television production, and I'm lucky to work with another of the best guys in the business, my old friend John Rosborough, of Sonic Design / RPM.

I say "old friend" because I've known John (at left in Puerto Rico with Nick Redfern) since the early 1990s, when we were both young pups in the burgeoning Halifax music scene. I was the rhythm guitar player and lead songwriter for a band called Tall Poppies in 1992, and John was the guitar player and lead singer for a group called The Fourth Wall. When Tall Poppies played their first paying gig, we opened for The Fourth Wall at the legendary Double Deuce. Later, when we became popular, they returned the favour and opened for us at a couple of gigs at the Cafe Ole, Halifax's original all-ages music venue.

Even before that, however, I had run into John when he played in a cover band called Dark Karnival, which my old law school classmates will remember as one of the most popular acts to play the late, much lamented Domus Legis, the law frat on campus at Dalhousie, a place where you could go have a beer with the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada (they tore it down a few years ago).

John and I eventually moved along from the music business - John into film and television from the service side, as a sound man, editor and post audio guy, working on shows such as Sea Hunters and Oceans of Mystery, and me as a civil servant and then a producer and director in the private sector. We first worked together in the film industry back in 1999, when we did an all-night session on a short film I had made called The Pet Exorcist. In the years since, we've been here, there and everywhere on a number of projects - John and Findlay Muir are the two guys I rely on the most to make me look good. We've also taken some time off for side trips to Reno and Las Vegas, where we've been known to cause all sorts of trouble (well, not really, but it's nice to pretend that we're rebels).

I consider John to be the best in the business. Even though he's moved into producing and directing himself (he did a wonderful documentary for Vision TV on the Salvation Army two years ago), John is still the King of Sound (and a pretty good camera jockey, too). Best Evidence is going to sound good because of him.

I also count Johnny Roswell (as we tagged him on the Stanton T. Friedman is Real shoot) as one of my best friends, not just in the Biz, but on the planet. He's a guy I would work with, travel with, or jump off a metaphorical cliff into the unknown with any day of the week, and twice on Sundays.

Who knows - one of these days we may even wind up jumping off a real cliff, if that's where the adventure is!

Paul Kimball

The First 30 Seconds

2007-04-27T17:21:00.000-03:00

So, what's the film all about?

We cover that right off the bat, in the first thirty seconds:

In 2005 and 2006, documentary filmmaker Paul Kimball surveyed a select group of the world’s leading UFO researchers. He asked each of them for a list of their ten best UFO cases of all time. The cases were assigned point values, based on their rank, and then averaged together. Over seventy UFO incidents from around the world received votes. At the end of the process, the following ten incidents comprised the best evidence UFO cases of all time.

After that, there's no fuss, there's no muss - it's straight into the cases.

Paul Kimball

BEhind the Scenes - DOP Findlay Muir

2007-04-27T12:02:00.000-03:00

My director of photography, Findlay Muir, is a top notch camera jockey, as good as they come. He's one the the guys on my team that makes me look good. Sometimes you'll see a shot in one of my films, and it was taken by Findlay on his own initiative, while I was off doing something else, like setting up an interview, or having a beer in the hotel bar.

In Stanton T. Friedman is Real (Redstar Films - 2002), for example, there's a wonderful, noirish shot of Stan walking down an aisle in an empty auditorium, in black and white, with his face in shadow and only one light behind him. If you've seen the film, you know the one I'm talking about.

I think it's one of the best shots that's ever appeared in one of my films (heck, any documentary I've seen), and I wish I could take credit for it, but I wasn't even there. Sure, Findlay sort of briefed me on it, and I said okay, but then I left to track down some interviewees for later in the day (our production manager would have normally done that, but he was off doing something else). Findlay ran the whole thing. It was his idea, and his shot. When I got back home and into the editing suite, I knew as soon as I saw it that the shot would be in the film somewhere.

For the past eight years, I've been getting that kind of stuff from Findlay, who has over twenty years experience as a DOP and a photographer, in some of the world's most dangerous spots (which makes hanging out at a UFO convention a walk in the park for him). He has no fear, and will do anything to get the shot, even when I'm muttering something about "insurance risk" and praying to God that nothing goes wrong.

But the best part about Findlay is that he's pretty much the nicest person in the film and television industry, at least among the folks I've met and dealt with. He and I have developed something more than a "director - DOP" rapport over the years; we're pals. I genuinely enjoy hanging out with him on the road, and traveling to different places with him. In eight years of working together, we've never had a single argument - and if you know me, you'll realize that Findlay deserves some kind of Nobel Peace Prize award for that achievement.

Like I said, he's one of the folks who make me look good - and he also makes the people being interviewed look good.

Findlay Muir is a true professional, and he's my friend.

The opportunity to work with him is one of the reasons I love my job.

Paul Kimball

BEhind the scenes - Kris Lee McBride: A New Voice

2007-04-27T10:14:00.000-03:00

Best Evidence is a risky film for a lot of reasons. One of them is the serious nature of the content, particularly when compared to most other documentaries about the UFO phenomenon.

Now, to UFO afficianados, "serious" sounds promising, but a parade of talking heads is death on television.

It's the fine line that I've always had to walk - trying to keep it entertaining for the vast majority of people for whom UFOs are just an interesting diversion, while also providing content that the much smaller minority of people truly interested in the UFO phenomenon might find compelling.

One of the other (calculated) risks is my attempt to give the film a different voice. Most documentaries have male narrators - indeed, while the person might be different each time, the style they use (deep, faux authoritative, with seeming gravitas) often sounds the same. Now, there's a reason producers do this - why try to re-invent the wheel when it seems to work perfectly well?

I'm not most producers, however. I think we should hear different voices in films, particularly films about the UFO phenomenon, where so many of the voices are older men.

Enter actress Kris Lee McBride as the narrator for Best Evidence.

Kris is a recent graduate of the acting program at the University of Windsor, in Ontario. I directed her this past winter in a play here in Halifax, where she demonstrated the kind of talent that you can't teach, and the kind of commitment to her craft that all producer or director respects. In short, she's top notch, so I decided she was going to be the English-language voice for Best Evidence.

Now, over the years I've made some pretty boneheaded decisions (narrating Do You Believe in Majic myself was one of them). Engaging Kris for Best Evidence has been one of the better ones.

How do I know? There's my own reaction, of course, and that of my post audio guy, and... well, everyone else involved. But, corny as it sounds, my Mom, who represents the general viewing public as well as anyone else, dug Kris' work (my Mom has never had a problem telling me when I've made a boneheaded decision). I sent a clip of a segment of the film to my parents, just for some feedback. My Mom wrote me: "Just finished listening to the piece on Shaq Harbour, Kris is good, a nice clear, easy listening voice, must be the theatre training."

Good enough for my Mom? Then she's good enough for me!

There's a new voice coming to the world of UFO documentaries, and it's Kris Lee McBride. I'm pretty sure that someday you're going to see her on bigger screens, or in bigger projects, because she's got what it takes to make it there - and then some!

When that day comes, we'll all look back fondly on Best Evidence, where it began, and say, "remember when?"

Paul Kimball

Best Evidence - Premieres in Canada May 10th on Space

2007-04-25T07:05:00.000-03:00

Best Evidence will premiere on Space: The Imagination Station on May 10th, at 10 pm AST / 9 pm EST. You can see the listing here.

The accompanying blurb reads as follows:

Best Evidence

Whether they believe or not, people all over the world are fascinated by the subject of UFOs. Best Evidence, a SPACE supported documentary, looks at the 10 best UFO cases to date. Many are unknown to the general public, who for years have been fed tales of crashed flying saucers and government cover-ups at the expense of real evidence that shows that there is something unexplained happening in the sky.

Warning: There are no crazy aliens in the film, and no goofy backdrops to interviewees, or anything like that. In fact, to the best of my recollection, aliens aren't mentioned once, at least not directly. There is animation, but it's of the Discovery-channel variety, i.e. serious, and not of the Plan 9 From Outer Space variety, i.e. not serious.

As some UFO researchers are busy these days bashing UFO documentaries and networks and producers at UFO Updates, I'd like to take a moment to thank the good folks at Space for giving me the opportunity to try something a bit different - a serious film about serious UFO cases. It's a risk for them, and they deserve all the credit in the world (and beyond) for taking it, especially Charlotte Engel, who heads up their independent production section, and greenlit the film over two years ago.

The next UFO-related film I make, assuming I ever make another, which is at best a 50 / 50 proposition, would probably focus on the tongue-in-cheek, weird and wacky world of ufology (where truth really is stranger than fiction). Something where I head out with my pals Nick Redfern, Mac Tonnies, Tim Binnall and Greg Bishop on a ufoological road trip across America maybe - definitely in an RV. Kris Lee Mcbride will be tagging along as well. At the end we meet the Court Jester of Ufoology, the one and only Jim Moseley. I've earned the right to look at the lighter side of it all.

But for the moment, I'm Mr. Serious, and if Best Evidence isn't quite Dick Hall's The UFO Evidence (and I never claimed it would be, knowing full well that no documentary can match a book for detail), Dick was still smart enough to see the merit in the project, and contribute, as were a lot of others.

And unlike Peter Jennings and his team, I was smart enough to recognize the contribution that Dick has and continues to make - he's in the film, along with Nick Pope, Stan Friedman, Bruce Maccabee, Mac Tonnies, Don Ledger, and our chief consultant and my good friend, Brad Sparks - as well as witnesses Colonel Charles Halt, Captain Robert Salas, and Lieutenant Colonel Bruce Bailey.

Is it the greatest film ever made? Hardly. But is it a film you're going to want to see?

I hope so.

Paul Kimball

Which case do YOU think is the "Best Evidence" UFO case?
	Nuremberg - 1561
	Yukon "mothership" - 1996
	Skylab III - 1973
	Malmstrom AFB - 1967
	Shag Harbour - 1967
	Santa Barbara Channel (Kelly Johnson case) - 1953
	McMinnville (Trent photos) - 1950
	Rendlesham Forest - 1980
	Tehran - 1976
	RB47 - 1957

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