Moment of Contact

Stories of UFOs, ETs and the government coverups associated with them have become commonplace in today's culture, in everything from specialty cable TV series to Coast to Coast AM radio to episodes of The X-Files, with narratives that are all remarkably and consistently similar. And now director James Fox's new documentary has added its voice to this growing chorus of material on the subject, exploring the alleged 1996 crash of a UFO in Varginha, Brazil and the supposed escape of two extraterrestrial beings in the wake of that incident. Those already familiar with stories like this may not find this one especially revelatory, but those new to this subject matter are likely to see it as a well-organized, thoroughly explained accounting of an event that has become all too common over the past half century, especially in Brazil, a hotbed for this kind of activity. What's perhaps most impressive about this offering is the tremendous corroboration that the filmmaker and his team of investigators have amassed from an array of sources, including firsthand witnesses, military officials, medical professionals and first responders, along with the commentary of noted ufologists. Admittedly, there are a few sequences on which the presentation of the material becomes needlessly repetitive and could stand some judicious editing, and Fox's on-camera enthusiasm, though understandable, could still stand to be toned down a few notches. Nevertheless, the director has put together a production that comes across as highly credible and eminently convincing, telling a story that the world truly deserves to hear more about, especially from the official sources that have deliberately sought to quash it. After years of mounting anecdotal evidence and sustained conditioning worldwide, humanity is ready for the truth - and it's high time we heard it.

Man, this was disappointing. I thought at least they would have tracked down some real videos, photographs at least documents by now. But nope, nothing new. And there are so many more cases in Brazil and South America in general that they should have at least mentioned. And some of the best stuff is buried in the ending credits, why? The biggest miss of all was not talking to diplomats and looking for some retired american military who would have been stationed there at the time. Even a clerk at the embassy would have been interesting to see the body language. This case is totally legit and needs some real investigation with new data not some emotional interpretation. They could have drawn parallels with the Mage case of just a few years ago where there was also extraordinary military movement and American presence.

Updating my review from at 7 to a 9. I've re-watched this movie a few times now and I think my review below is a little harsh. I think we all expect too much from an evidence perspective. This is an excellent testimony-based account of something non-human that really happened. I commend James on his diligence and perseverance here. I stick by my assessment that it could've been a bit shorter, but I do understand the desire for the dramatic background music, etc...

The moment of this film that haunts me is the description of the being crying like a baby.

This is absolutely worth a watch. Something happened in Varginha that, if provable via video evidence, will change our civilization permanently.

James, I personally apologize for the harshness of my initial review - my expectations were too high.

Original review: Just another bunch of eye witness testimony and questionable imagery. It was intriguing and moderately entertaining, but there's really nothing new to see here. All of these alien encounter documentaries are fascinating, but not really ground breaking in any way. I do appreciate the efforts to revisit such historic events like this, but the same old formulaic format is getting pretty stale. I'm sure it's significantly difficult to put enough footage together for a full length film, but this documentary could've easily been less than 30 minutes and still just as entertaining. I'm also certain that some of these folks in Brazil actually witnessed something unexplainable. Maybe one day we'll know more, but not today. Thanks for the efforts.

I am a big fan of documentaries and this documentary film meets everything I expect from one, perhaps shedding some light onto an interesting events of first contact in Brazil.

Unfortunately, despite lots of collaborating eye witness accounts, it was a bit underwhelming to not have any feeling of conclusion at the end.

As a documentary filmmaker, I kept thinking of how differently I would have attempted to conduct some of the interviews had I been making Moment of Contact. Of course I wasn't present so perhaps it simply wasn't possible, but I suspect it may have been.

For example, I would have wanted to conduct the interviews where more than one witness was present, separately and independent of the others, rather than have them at the same place, same spot, same time. I think that would have felt more credible and made it more interesting to compare the different testimonies for any variations or differences. There did seem to be some attempt to do that in at least of the interviews after the fact.

However, I realize that when making a documentary in particular, time is always limited and restrictive, especially if multiple interviews or different locations are required.

I gave this documentary a 7 Stars rating for its work and structure, since taking a lot of interviews, and history and details and making them into a flowing story can be challenging, but I placed it only into my Pretty Good Movies list which is usually only for 5 to 6 Stars, instead of my Highly Recommend Movies list which is 7 to 8 Stars.

Mainly because the value of this film to me as a filmmaker and documentary film creator is higher than what it would be for someone I might recommend the film to who doesn't have a history or experience in making documentaries.

That said, if you enjoy documentaries, then you'll probably watching the Moment of Contact moderately enjoyable and interesting.

This is a very well constructed documentary. If you don't know anything about this case, I recommend you to search for some news before watching it ( there's a documentary made by Marco Antonio Petit where you can see all the authorities worried about the incident but still trying to hide the facts of what the citizens saw those days). Only people who already heard about this history knows that it's a joke all around the country (not because there isn't facts, but because Varginha is a very small city and everyone thinks that a "creature" would not appear there). Fox show us several facts and witnesses clearly shocked by what occurred. If you didn't like it you probably don't understand how our country works, and how our people is really emotional and although we are a poor country, we don't need your attention, we don't want money. We just want to share with the world the events and why we are so impacted by them. There are several people who is trying to forget what they saw until today, and making fun about it don't help at all. It is serious, and it really happened.