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Lesley

Grey Matter

Lesley is also a columnist for UFO Magazine. Check it out !

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7.9.13

Albuquerque: The Hidden Hand Screening and Q&A Panel

On June 7th, James Carman brought his film "The Hidden Hand" to Albuquerque for the film festival.

At first I wasn't that interested, having already seen an earlier version of the film (not that it was bad, just that I had already seen it), but then I learned that Lyn Buchanan would be at the Q&A after! Some of you may know that I am kind of obsessive about "Men Who Stare at Goats" stuff and I had never met Lyn and have wanted to for years! Of course, I decided to go after I emailed Lyn and make sure he will be there.

The other Q&A speaker who were listed were, Linda Moulton Howe, Dolores Cannon and Clifford Stone.

When I got to the theater, I was quite happy to meet Charles Hall and his lovely wife. I have spoken with Charles through email and remember seeing him and his wife at one of our NM UFO/Paranormal meetings, but I had not actually met him before.

I will speak a bit about the film itself before I move onto my "personal issues." Haha!

The film is good, but could be better. I realize they have to cut a lot of stuff to make it a certain length, but if someone was watching it and wasn't so into UFOlogy there might be a lot they wouldn't understand. For instance, there were things that seem out of context, like Charles Hall mentioning the "tall whites." Unless you already know his story, you would have no idea what he is talking about. And for people like myself, there is a lot of stuff that seems rehashed from other documentaries. That said, you can pick anything apart and overall this film is really well done.

Now back to my experience...

So I am there at the theater (which is packed!) with my friend Gloria Hawker (who was in the earlier version of the film, which will eventually be an entirely different film) and Carman is speaking and introducing the film and he says that Richard Hoagland might show up! I am skeptical because I have invited Richard and Robin to numerous cool events and they never show up. It made me think that RCH wants nothing to do with the Albuquerque UFO community, which is fine.

When the lights were off and the film was running, someone walked down the aisle. Seeing the hair in the glow from the film - I know it is Richard and probably Robin. I even tell Gloria to look and that he did actually show up.

They sat two rows in front of me. After the film was over, there was some brief conversation between them and those sitting around. Suddenly they were leaving adn I want to meet them and when they were walking down the aisle I tried to come up with something to say and it ends up being: "Hi, Facebook friends!" They both stop and look at me like I am crazy and then keep walking! LOL! OMG, I felt dorkish! I don't know if they couldn't hear well enough to understand (though the theater was pretty quiet) or they just didn't care.

So, I still haven't actually met RCH. Although, I have been within 2 feet of him.

After that, I decided not to even say hi to Linda Moulton Howe because I haven't heard from her in years and figure she is angry with me over something and I can't possibly deal with two rejections in one day!

Not that it matters, the wonderful Lyn Buchanan made up for that. Although I didn't get to talk with him as much as I would have liked, I did get to meet him and get a signed copy of his book - which he wrote a cool inscription on. Since that is really what I went there for, I had a totally great time!

Really the whole thing was pretty amazing, so many well known Ufology people there and I have to say that I am really amazed by the spunk and energy of Dolores Cannon! I am not sure how old she is and I won't even guess, but she has been around for a long time!

OK, so onto the panel Q&A, which unfortunately I did not get to stay for much of. The weird thing was that Hoagland was part of it, even though he isn't in the film at all and to my knowledge does not even believe aliens are visiting earth! I'm not quite sure what James Carman was thinking with that, since he didn't attract any attendees because nobody knew he would be there.

Frankly, the thing that got the most attention from photos I posted on facebook was RCH's clothing. He wore a "Back to the Future" style cowboy shirt, pink with flowers, a bolo tie (of course), belt with turquoise, white pants, pink socks to match his shirt and brown shoes. Very dandy! I include a photos taken by my friend Jen Klarfeld (you may know of her father Marshall, BOA - season 1. If not, check it out!).

I wish I could have stayed longer to hear the panel, but I am informed it all went pretty well. That is kind of a surprise considering I would think Hoagland's viewpoint would be opposing to the others.

I did notice that someone seemed to be video taping the entire thing, so hopefully it will eventually be on You Tube or somewhere I can watch it.

  • Check out Lesley's Blog HERE

    As well as her Beyond the Dial blog

  • Lesley is also a columnist for UFO Magazine. Check it out !