For the past few years, Los Angeles-based filmmaker and artist Jeremy Corbell has been interviewing cosmic whistleblowers: people at high levels in US intelligence and scientific organizations who’ve encountered the extraterrestrial. His Extraordinary Beliefs series is a candid, weird, post-modern Twilight Zone: a guide to the everyday and otherworldly all around us.
In Nano Man, Corbell turns his lens on a nano-physicist who claims to have in his possession a mysterious alien nanotechnological compound that is thousands of years advanced technologically from what humans can fabricate today. Corbell brings the material to NASA analysts in California at Moffett Federal Airfield, who interrogate the sample under a scanning electron microscope. Is this physical evidence of extraterrestrial nanotechnology? Or evidence of broader government conspiracy?
You’ve fought in the MMA, built a career as a contemporary artist, and shot documentary films. What inspired you to jump into investigative journalism and UFO culture?
Investigative journalism and the UFO subject chose me, more that I chose it. As a filmmaker, my camera became my passport into the extraordinary lives of very private people. I quickly realized that people holding secrets to some of the most unusual and highly sensitive truths regarding the nature of our reality and humanity's position in the Universe, needed a trustworthy documentarian to act as a repository for their conscience. The unblinking eye of my camera became both a non-judging observer, and a digital confessional for those burdened by massive secrets. Secrets tend to eat away at your soul. It can be painful. Especially when what you know is paradigm transforming. My first interview was with a former CIA pilot. The floodgates simply opened from there.
The personal allure to the subject matter is due to the fact that "the phenomenon” (as I like to call UFO related experience), is one of the most intriguing mysteries of our time. With a cursory look into the history of the UFO experience, you will find that millions of trained observers since the beginning of recorded human history, have been experiencing contact with non-human intelligences globally. It sounds extraordinary, and that’s because it is. But being extraordinary does not make it any less true.
Jujitsu (MMA) was an outlet for my creativity from the age of 9, and then art, and now investigative filmmaking. I have been lucky to have had mentors in each field. In journalism, my mentor is George Knapp (two-time Peabody Award Winning Journalist with 24 Emmys). He continues to teach me the pitfalls, methods, ethics and tactics of powerful journalism. I’m grateful for his guidance in such a fascinating labyrinthine laden field of research.
When did you become convinced that the extraterrestrial was real? Was there a trigger point?
On the deepest level, I don’t know what we’re dealing with. The visitors could be “ExtraTerrestrials”, they could be “ExtraDimensionals” or even “ExtraTemporals”. What I DO know is that there are non-human intelligences engaging humanity, and even influencing the course of our history. I know that there is a VERY real and physical reality to “The Phenomenon". That there are hard physical craft, discs, flying saucers traversing our airspace with impunity at all times. The US Military (and most global powers) know, and have been aware of the UFO problem for quite some time. They take the matter seriously, and study it continually and currently. Our government, or a sub-group within our government, tried to reverse-engineer craft originating from off-world. If you think about it, any nation would kill to have propulsion technology with capabilities displayed by many of these craft of non-terrestrial origin. But don’t take my word for it, investigate it for yourself.
My trigger point… I have been fortunate enough to be in touch with sources of high military status, who have held positions that gave them access to some of the most exotic black-budget programs on the planet. I’ve been a trusted documentarian and confidant for them, and let’s just say that I no longer have the luxury of disbelief when it comes to UFOs.
They are here. Who THEY are, and what they want… those are the big questions. And for those, I have only theories.
There’s a lot of documentation around alien existence. And a lot of it is discredited. Why don’t most people know (or care) more about these issues? Do you think believers are marginalized / maligned? That there’s a coverup conspiracy in play?
About 95% of all sightings and reports can be sufficiently rationalized with prosaic explanations. But at least 5% of all UFO experiences simply can not. Even more so, within that 5%, the narrative derived indicates something very exotic. And remember, it only takes one sighting or encounter for “The Phenomenon" to be real. After millions of cases throughout history that fall in this 5% category, after the witness have been vetted, you can say that the evidence becomes weighty of a reality much more complex than at first glance. In-fact, I have found that the people who reject the notion of visitation are usually uninformed. More often than not, they simply have not looked at the available evidence. It’s sad actually… you can’t simply ignore evidence (radar reports, multiple witness encounters, landing cases, crash retrievals, cosmic whistleblowers and government insiders coming forward under oath to testify). As a reporter, this makes you negligent and a vehicle for ignorance. It’s simply unscientific to cherry-pick facts, or deny evidence such as what I have listed. We need to look at ALL the evidence, and not just mold information to fit our preconceived notions.
People might not know the details of the UFO issue, simply because they have not been exposed to the information. Usually it takes a personal experience before we begin to care about these bigger questions associated with visitation. It’s a lack of imagination really… and that’s a problem. It’s easier to label someone or some idea “crazy”, then to look at the reality of the situation. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a HUGE signal to noise problem when studying the UFO problem. And mostly it’s self-generated by what you call “believers”… but I think this it's unfortunate to label people as “believers” and “skeptics”... as so often is done. This polarizes and politicizes the issue, rather than uniting us all towards the common goal of truth and knowledge.
The UFO phenomenon is either REAL or FICTITIOUS. And once you actually look into it with a sober-minded and empirical approach, the answer is clear.
It’s imperative to alter the dialogue to mesh with our current understanding of the nature of reality. Mathematically speaking the Universe is teeming with intelligent and technologically advanced space-faring civilizations far beyond what humans have achieved on Earth. Within the last 10 years we have been able to identify that the Universe is homogenous with life-nurturing elements and environments, and have conclusively discovered hundreds of Earth-like ExoPlanets in habitable zones. We have also realized that the Universe is MUCH more populated with stars and planets than we ever imagined. So where does that leave us? It thrusts us towards an uncomfortable humility. It forces us to the realization that... We are NOT alone. This answers a question humans have grappled with since we began looking up into the skies and wondering what we were seeing. Or in my case, the moment I saw Spielberg’s ET in the theater in 1982.
Nano Man is the first film from your series exploring nano-technology, and the perspectives of cosmic whistleblowers. How did you gain access to your subjects?
I earn the trust of my subjects, repeatedly, consistently and over time. I have never revealed a source who wanted anonymity, and I have never betrayed the trust of a subject. I seek stories and follow leads, but now it’s a two-way street. People come to me. Access is always equated with confidence. The more confidence a source has in you to handle or contain their story or confession, the more access you will receive. Simple as that. Keeping secrets in this business is just as important as exposing them.
What’s been your approach to investigation; to building this series? What do you hope to accomplish?
As my mentor George Knapp has taught me, you need to vet every source. My approach is to separate the wheat from the chaff very early on. I only take on cases that I can verify some element of reliable factual truth. And then once I get my hooks into something, I don’t let go till I’ve uncovered a new truth. I take it all the way. I go in deep and immerse myself. Even if it takes years. My promise is that if I find out you’re lying, I will expose you. If can prove or document compelling evidence in support of your story, I will amplify your case to the public, and help you expose the truth.
It’s simply really. You need tenacity, dedication and an open mind... and the ability to detect bullshit. If you have all of those qualities and are willing to apply them, then nothing can stop you. It can’t be taught. You need to learn through experience.
I want the questions I ask in my films, the experiences I have on camera, to translate into getting you so disturbed that you become a participant... not just an observer. I want to agitate you to the point of self-discovery. Quite literally, I aim to weaponize your curiosity.
What can we expect to see next?
I will be launching a variety of films through my investigative series called Extraordinary Beliefs. I will be launching shorts and features, developed over the past six years. It’s time to take my finger from the dam and begin the flood of footage to be consumed by the public. You will see testimonials from credentialed Military whistleblowers, films on fringe subjects like alleged off-world (alien) implant removal surgeries, and a lot of pieces dealing with the “Godfather of Conspiracy” John Lear. My work is like a modern day Twilight Zone, except that every story is absolutely real. Myth, illusion, and scientific fact merge into one, and create a unique portrait of reality.
It’s important to understand that I’m not trying to convince anyone of anything. It doesn’t work to tell someone we’re being engaged by non-humans, and have been since the beginning of human history, or that the visitors may have modified our DNA and had a hand in orchestrating our culture, language, writing, and religious belief systems. You don't just say that to someone because it means nothing. But if I do my job right with my films, I intend to showcase serious, credible, and often decorated military individuals who have put every shred of their personal credibility on the line in order to tell the public that reality is extraordinarily different than what we’re being taught. I hope to allow people to be open enough to construct their own architecture of understanding, which could become a more permanent facet to their character.
Ultimately, I’m creating portraits of fearless pioneers. Undaunted explorers who investigate the unexplained, rather than explain the un-investigated. My films are a testament to the power of curiosity and, I hope, a blueprint of how to weaponize it.