“For us, controversy is a critical ingredient for documentaries, whose raison d’etre is to look reality dead in the eye, and not be a hostage to political correctness or consensual thinking. A great documentary should not be afraid to ask the unaskable, even if it doesn’t have any answers.”

Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato
International Documentary magazine

The story of the crop circles is a story about truth. What is it? Who possesses it? Is it obtainable? Most of the people in this film are either on a quest for the truth (the Researchers) or claiming to know the truth (the Hoaxers). But even that is a simplification.

In crop circle country, as in life, the truth can be more complex, subtle and elusive than we can ever imagine. There are no simple answers. There is no one truth. The people in this film, through investigation and interaction, have experienced deeper levels of this mystery, and have realized that the crop circle phenomenon is much bigger than the designs in the fields. There is something extraordinary happening in southern England.

And that is the truth.

If after watching CircleSpeak you feel less certain about crop circles, or you have questions remaining, or you are intrigued by contradictions – then we have succeeded. We have shown the truth that we experienced after years of research and many weeks of filming in crop circle country.

There is no simple truth. No one person or film owns the truth.

Many people will disagree with us. But we feel proud of the fact that we approached this subject as objectively as possible, and that we produced a film that has no agenda to convince, simplify, debunk or exhalt. We made a film about complex people dealing with a complex subject.

We will be criticized for showing the Hoaxer/Circlemaker perspective. Some people strongly feel that this approach contaminates the spirituality of the “genuine” phenomenon and they are vehemently opposed to media projects that, in their opinion, feed into a game of disinformation and lies. They feel that the hoaxers have hijacked the crop circles to serve their own selfish means. To our surprise, we found that many Hoaxers had spiritual perspectives that stemmed from encounters with paranormal events in crop circles. CircleSpeak doesn’t reinforce prevailing opinions of the hoaxers as mean-spirited scoundrels. Researcher Ron Russell and videographer Peter Sorensen describe the Hoaxers as “pagan anarchists” and “brilliant young Picassos”. Those descriptions are probably ingredients of the truth.

The pragmatic skeptics will scoff at our coverage of the true Believers, and argue that the film strays from facts, reason and common sense. But in our opinion, both the media and the skeptics are far too quick to marginalize the Researchers as UFO enthusiasts on the New Age fringe. These are cheap shots that ignore the extraordinary intelligence and dedication of the Researchers and the massive amount of unexplainable details surrounding the crop circles.

The media likes to portray the story of the crop circles as a curious little phenomenon with no relevance to the greater world around us. But perhaps there is another view. Throughout history, the pioneers and free-thinkers who challenged current belief systems were belittled and dismissed until new and indisputable discoveries led to changes in scientific paradigms. The scientific and academic establishments are not supporting the crop circle investigations. The people in this film are left to shoulder the burden – and are paying a high (financial and emotional) price for doing it. They are pushing the envelope and making extraordinary discoveries. They are our reporters on the front lines of the paranormal. And all throughout history, yesterday’s “paranormal” eventually becomes understood and accepted as scientific knowledge expands.

Making this film was an exhilarating experience. These are fascinating people, alive and vibrant and engaged. This film is full of mystics, philosophers, scientists, rebels, artists, visionaries, pagans and prophets. They are surrounded by mystery, and rather than closing their eyes they have chosen to dance with it.

That is the truth we hope you’ll find in CircleSpeak.