Look to the Skies!

NEWS | TUESDAY, JUNE 23 | BY FUSION STAFF WRITER, RUDOLFO CARRILLO

On Sunday, June 28, at 2:00 PM, a special film screening about an influential and controversial figure in the field of UFOs, UAPs, extraterrestrials, reverse engineering, and similar topics will make its way to FUSION. That man is named Bob Lazar. The eponymous film is titled S4: The Bob Lazar Story.

Lazar’s life and professional narrative certainly is nuanced, complicated, and absolutely compelling. The film is sponsored by The Larger Universe, a local group of citizens who absolutely want to believe. You don’t have to join them on the celestial bandwagon; your attendance at this event portends wonderful possibilities. Your eyes might very well be opened, and your heart’s mission to find the source of all things could take one heady step toward fulfillment when you engage this film and the ideas and experiences it explicates.

Growing up in Albuquerque during the 1970s, 1980s, and into the 1990s as I graduated from UNM, I recall that what was known back then as the UFO craze was in full tilt; sightings in New Mexico, the home of the phenomenon in its most postmodern form (read: Roswell, anyone?), were at an all-time high and just about anyone you could stop and ask at Winrock Mall, at a Dukes game or down by Tingley Beach could or would want to tell you something about their latest experience with the unknown.

Add to that curious cultural mix the fact both Lazar and UFO investigator and instigator Paul Bennewitz were making Albuquerque their respective homes (both incidentally working in the scientific supply business, Bennewitz at his own start-up, a place called Thunder Scientific, right across the street from Sandia Labs, don’t ya know), and by the mid-eighties, folks like Lazar were learning about the true nature of all those scientific facilities on the peripheries of all those military outposts in the desert.

Those stories and that historical context have the makings of a mythology that is both potent and generally unresolved nearly fifty years later, as large-scale pop-culture film works like Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day hit the big screen this summer

The question that remains is a big question, embedded in tellings like those of Spielberg’s and Lazar’s. Whether we are alone in this universe or are just one of many intelligent species scattered across the stars is something that has been puzzling to humans for millennia. Lazar says he can answer that universal query. His time at one of our government’s secret military labs at Groom Lake, AKA Area 51, and what he experienced there are testaments to the wealth of knowledge he holds.

To find out more about such intriguing ideas and their potential outcomes and consequences, I spoke to the leader of the group that’s behind bringing the Lazar documentary to town. Birdie Jaworski is with The Larger Universe, a cadre of skeptics, believers, scientists, and people of faithful patience who are currently studying the phenomenon Lazar is so famous for making known across a nation that still wonders if the truth is out there.

Rudolfo Carrillo: Could you please tell me a little about the documentary that your group is screening this weekend at FUSION?

Birdie Jaworski: It’s a fascinating, extraordinarily well-done documentary. Now, I have seen pretty much every documentary related to this particular narrative and in UFO-related fields, parapsychology and paranormal fields. This one is absolutely excellent. They take a lot of archival footage from when Bob Lazar first came out as a whistleblower, in the late 1980s and early 1990s. They combined it with interviews with him today. What’s interesting about Bob Lazar is that his story hasn’t changed. In all of these many thirty-plus years, he is still saying the same things about his experience allegedly working at a secret government facility we have now all come to know as Area 51.

How do you expect the audience will react or interact with this close-to-home narrative?

We’re going to hold a discussion afterward in order to let people say what they think or to share their experiences with Bob; this is in Albuquerque, where he used to live and work. Maybe they have thoughts on the phenomenon or whether or not they think he’s telling the truth about this. It’s all so mysterious and wonderful.

Why is the phenomenon that Lazar is trying to document still so important in American culture? Why are UFOs, alien technology, and all of that still part of our pop culture consciousness?

I had a conversation with Lazar, and he came across as genuine to me. To be honest, I agree with you. This has become mythology. Absolutely. But, without him, we might not know that there was a secret. Or still is to this day. There’s probably a secret government installation [at Area 51]. He’s the one that kind of blew the lid off the whole Groom Lake area. We have had people that worked in this area come forward because of him. Today, we have a whole disclosure movement happening. We have members of Congress who are stepping out in front now.

I hear the overarching narrative, which Lazar says he encountered merely one aspect of, has evolved. What’s that about?

We’ve gone from the 1970s, ‘80s, ‘90s, and people calling these aliens from another planet to contemporary times, when people are having a more nuanced or more complicated, layered understanding of what this phenomenon really is about. Many are thinking, “Are these actually little creatures from Alpha Centauri?” I don’t necessarily know if that statement still rings true. These experiences may be something that arises from our own consciousness. It may be something that we interact with on a different dimensional level, or through a different layer of reality. We’ve got physicists involved now in the equation; they’re starting to say this might be interdimensional phenomena. They’re even throwing out terms like hyperdimensional. Or ultra-terrestrial. So I think that no one really knows what this phenomenon is. But what we do know is that this [is a form or a force] that has interacted with humanity, going back to antiquity, since our very first recorded accounts. We have many, many cultures across the world that have talked about sky beings. They were at the genesis of culture; they imparted information. If you read the descriptions, everyone is describing very similar things. What people call the UFO phenomenon is that observable intersection with this new reality. Maybe our science can get to the bottom of it, at some point. It’s a wild ride, and I’m happy to be here for it.

If you met someone on the street and they asked you about the film’s relevance, and said, “Why should I come out for this film at FUSION?” What would your response sound like?

Right now, humanity is at a crossroads; we are facing all kinds of things we don’t understand. We have technology that is growing faster than the normal human being can keep up with. Artificial intelligence is starting to run many of our lives. We are giving pieces of ourselves over to artificial intelligence. At the same time, we are facing the question, “Are we alone in this universe?” With the U.S. government starting to trickle out information that perhaps we may not be alone, this is an exciting time to engage with compelling ideas. Come to this and learn about and discuss Bob Lazar’s ideas. It’s an opportunity to see a historical account mixed with clear indications about what is happening today. Engage in a dialogue with us! Let’s see if we can figure it out together.

S4: The Bob Lazar Story Documentary and Discussion
Sunday, June 28, 2026
2:00 PM – 4:00 PM
FUSION | 708
708 1st Street Northwest
Albuquerque, NM, 87102

Free RSVP here.