From: Will Bueche <willbueche.nul>
Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2004 12:57:41 -0800 (PST)
Fwd Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2004 07:01:43 -0500
Subject: ET's No Alien To Santa Feans


Dr. Mack 'Touched' Tour News

Source: The Albuquerque Journal - New Mexico

http://www.abqjournal.com/news/state/148190nm02-20-04.htm

February 20, 2004


ET's No Alien to Santa Feans

By Wren Propp
Journal Northern Bureau

SANTA FE -- Count alien abduction as yet another way the capital
city upholds its rep as the City Different.

Massachusetts filmmaker Laurel Chiten said she was "blown away"
in December when maybe as much as half of a standing-room-only
Santa Fe audience who saw her film "Touched" raised their hands
to say they'd had personal interaction with aliens from other
worlds.

"Touched" is a documentary about people who say they have
experienced alien abduction and contact. It was screened at the
Santa Fe Film Festival in December with sold-out showings.

"I was kind of blown away. ... The film really found its
audience" in Santa Fe, said Chiten in a telephone interview from
California.

Chiten and Dr. John E. Mack, a Harvard University psychiatrist
and researcher of those he calls "experiencers" -- folks who
report missing time, probes, sperm extraction, impregnation and
hybridization experiments after contact with aliens -- plan to
be in Santa Fe on Tuesday and Albuquerque on Wednesday for
additional screenings of the film.

Santa Fe's reputation as a place for people to heal, with
alternative medical practices, lifestyles and religious rituals,
makes it prime stomping grounds for those who believe they have
made alien connections, said Jon Bowman, executive director of
the film festival.

"A lot of people come here to lick their wounds. It's kind of a
way station, a crossroads," Bowman said.

And New Mexico's long-standing reports of crashing flying
saucers from Roswell to Aztec and years of cattle mutilations
provide fertile soil for those who would also be interested in
"Touched," he said.

"It goes with the territory," Bowman said.

After a screening of "Touched" in Santa Fe in December, audience
members talked about their own experiences, Chiten said.

Unlike discussions after other screenings elsewhere, the Santa
Feans didn't argue about the existence of aliens or the
possibility of mental illness on the part of abductees, she
said.

"This audience asked questions about the phenomenon and broke
into a discussion with each other, sharing their experiences,"
Chiten said.

When someone in the audience asked how many people at the
theater had experienced contact with aliens, about half raised
their hands, Chiten said.

"I was shocked," she said.

Mack, who calls those who have reported contact with aliens
"experiencers," said that perhaps those drawn to Santa Fe are
also drawn to experiences sent out from other dimensions.

"I would guess that the people in Santa Fe would be different
from those in New York," he said in a telephone interview from
the East Coast. "They might be more open spirited instead of
digging in their heels."

Mack earned a Pulitzer Prize for his biography of T.E. Lawrence
titled "A Prince of Our Disorder: The Life of T.E. Lawrence,"
whose life was explored in the film "Lawrence of Arabia."

The kind of discussion reported by Chiten in Santa Fe sounds
similar to the kind of discussion Mack hopes the film will
generate worldwide.

The film "avoids the rather sterile debate" over whether alien
contact can be proved," he said.

Viewers "can't help feel these are authentic individuals.... The
film goes to the heart," Mack said.


Get 'Touched' Again

In encore events sponsored by the Santa Fe Film Festival,
"Touched" will be shown at The Screen at the College of Santa
Fe, 1600 St. Michael's Drive, at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

Another showing, along with appearances by director Laurel
Chiten and Dr. John E. Mack, is at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the
Madstone Theaters in Albuquerque, 6311 San Mateo Blvd. NE.

Tickets for both showings are $10 and available at the door.
More information is available by calling the festival at 988-
5225.

Copyright 2004 Albuquerque Journal