Posthuman Blues

I finally got to watch "Best Evidence," Paul Kimball's new documentary on the UFO phenomenon. In one hour, Kimball makes a succinct case for the reality of unidentified flying objects and in so doing offers tantalizing evidence that we're dealing with a form of intelligence, whether extraterrestrial or other. He also demonstrates that the phenomenon, whatever its origin or purpose, is taken extremely seriously by the U.S. government.

But "Best Evidence" is especially notable for what it fails to do. Unlike the majority of UFO documentaries, it doesn't confront the viewer with the usual parade of self-professed skeptics whose knowledge of the subject is limited to pop-sociological treatises on the success of "The X-Files." And it doesn't wallow in the usual controversies by invoking Roswell or probing the nature of alien abductions, as interesting as those subjects might be when addressed skillfully.

With welcome commentary by Brad Sparks, Richard Hall and Stanton Friedman, "Best Evidence" rises to the top of the UFO documentary pile by virtue of its eloquence, brevity and innate respect for a phenomenon which, unlike lesser efforts, it doesn't pretend to be able to solve.