Mirage Men

2013 British film

Mirage Men

Theatrical release poster

Directed by| John Lundberg
Roland Denning
Kypros Kyprianou
Written by| Mark Pilkington
Produced by| Roland Dennnig
Kypros Kyprianou
John Lundberg
Mark Pilkington
Starring| Rick Doty
Cinematography| Grant Wakefield
Zillah Bowes
Edited by| Roland Denning
Kypros Kyprianou
Music by| Cyclobe
Urthona

Production
company

Perception Management Productions

Distributed by| Random Media

Release dates

* 13 June 2013 (2013-06-13) (Sheffield Doc/Fest)
* 27 March 2014 (2014-03-27) (United States)

Running time

| 85 minutes
Country| United Kingdom
Language| English

Mirage Men is a 2013 documentary film directed by John Lundberg, written by Mark Pilkington and co-directed by Roland Denning and Kypros Kyprianou. Mirage Men suggests there was a conspiracy by the U.S. military to fabricate UFO folklore in order to deflect attention from classified military projects.[1] It prominently features Richard Doty, a retired special agent who worked for AFOSI, the United States Air Force Office of Special Investigations.[2]

The film had its world premiere at the 2013 Sheffield Doc/Fest[1] in the UK on 13 June 2013, its North American premiere at the 2013 Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas on 22 September 2013, its Australian premiere at the Canberra International Film Festival[3] on 31 October 2013 and its Nordic premiere at the Stockholm Film Festival in Sweden on 10 November 2013.

Mark Pilkington's book about the project, also called Mirage Men, was published in 2010 by Constable & Robinson.[4]

## Reception

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Critical reception for the documentary has been positive. Twitch Film said the film was "Scary, unsettling" and "offered profound food for thought". Electric Sheep magazine[5] called it "one of the must see documentaries of the year". Ain't it Cool News[2] called the film "a real head trip" and said they were "glued to [their] seat".

## Influence and aftermath

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Mirage Men has been excerpted in the Adam Curtis documentary HyperNormalisation on BBC iPlayer.[6]

American novelist Ernest Cline credits the Mirage Men film as an influence on his novel and screenplay Armada in which the government has known for decades of an alien invasion and has been funding sci-fi films and videogames in order to prepare people for war.[7]

## See also

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* UFO Cover Up? Live, a 1988 television broadcast featuring Richard Doty
* Fred Crisman
* Carl Meredith Allen
* John Lear
* UFO reports and disinformation

## References

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1. ^ a b "'Tantalizing documentary suggests UFO folklore was deliberately fabricated under a U.S. psychological warfare program". The Hollywood Reporter. 13 June 2013.
2. ^ a b "'Muldoon Can't Trust Anyone After Seeing MIRAGE MEN at Fantastic Fest 2013!". Ain't it Cool News.
3. ^ "'Mirage Men – Canberra International Film Festival". Archived from the original on 27 January 2014.
4. ^ Pilkington, Mark (2010). Mirage Men. Constable & Robinson. p. 320\. ISBN 9781845298579. Archived from the original on 29 September 2010. Retrieved 1 October 2013.
5. ^ "'Electric Sheep Magazine – Mirage Men review by Virginie Sélavy". Electric Sheep. 23 June 2013.
6. ^ "'Mirage Men excerpted in the new Adam Curtis documentary".
7. ^ "'Sci-Fi Has Been Prepping Us for an Alien Invasion for Years". Wired. 11 July 2015.

## External links

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* Official website
* Mirage Men at IMDb