1970s UFO Documentary Online

Posted by Greg at 03:40, 30 Nov 2010

Here's a blast from the past: the 1977 Australian documentary UFOs Are Here! has been placed on Archive.org as a free download (in multiple formats). Yes, that's 33 years ago folks:

This UFO documentary film was produced in 1977... Sadly, the master copies of this film and the two which followed it have been lost to the ravages of time. Only one VHS copy of it survived; so Australia's Channel 9 gave us permission to convert it to digital video in an effort to preserve it as an archive for the use of posterity.

The documentary is notable for featuring a number of the 'big' UFO names: Jacques Vallee, Allen Hynek, Kenneth Arnold, Stanton Friedman, Betty Hill and Ray Palmer. It also features a young Steven Spielberg, around the time of his seminal Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

I've embedded the video below - if you'd rather download a copy, head to Archive.org. Note that there is an extended introduction by writer Stan Deyo, so if you want to dive straight into the documentary then you'll need to skip ahead to about the 10 minute mark of the video:

Thanks to dp1974 for the heads-up.

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#1
Redoubt's picture
Member since:
14 July 2008
Last activity:
7 hours 14 min
Posted by Redoubt on 30 Nov 2010 at about 14:02.

Wow, I haven't heard that title in years! Glad someone took the time to put it out in the public domain before it was lost.

Thanks for sharing!

PS - As one more option, there is the xVideoThief (link below) software that will download and convert YouTube vids to your computer. I use it in tandem with another program, Imagen, to get into the nuts and bolts of some of the more remarkable videos there.

xVideoThief
http://xviservicethief.sourceforge.net/

Imagen
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/...

—

"The power of accurate observation is frequently called cynicism by those who don't have it."

I installed "thief" om my
#2
emlong's picture
Member since:
18 September 2007
Last activity:
4 hours 45 min
Posted by emlong on 30 Nov 2010 at about 18:12.

I installed "thief" om my Widows XP machine, but find that the first Youtube video downloaded only plays sound - no video. This is going automatically to Windows Media Player for playback. Is there more I need to do for total conversion? Thanks.

xThief
#3
Redoubt's picture
Member since:
14 July 2008
Last activity:
7 hours 14 min
Posted by Redoubt on 30 Nov 2010 at about 19:37.

At the bottom of the program window, next to the field for the video URL, is a button to click to select the landing spot/directory for your downloads and another button nearby for other formatting options. I generally choose mpg for format because it is very basic and plays back in the Imagen.

—

"The power of accurate observation is frequently called cynicism by those who don't have it."