The Genesis of High Strange New Mexico
High Strange New Mexico began as a book project in the summer of 1995. Journalist Anthony DellaFlora planned to write a book that would combine the rich history and folklore of the UFO phenomenon in New Mexico with a tongue-in-cheek tour guide to UFO sites around the state. After all, what other area can boast of stories of multiple landings and crashes of alien spacecraft (Roswell, Aztec, et al) an underground base full of evil aliens (near Dulce NM) the exchange of personnel between the military and aliens (Holloman Air Force Base, 1964), a Martian colony living beneath Mt. Baldy near Santa Fe, the famous Lonnie Zamora sighting in Socorro in 1964, the first mass flying saucer sighting of the modern era (Farmington, March 1950), a classic hoax (the Aztec landing in 1948) an “airship” sighting near Galisteo in 1880 that presaged a wave of such sightings, and an event that served as the basis for the Nicholas Roeg film “The Man Who Fell to Earth”? And did we mention cattle mutilations? All this in a state already rich with Spanish and Native American tales of strange lights and “little people.”
Filmmaker James Lujan planned to produce a five-minute promotional video for the book. However, after a visit to Roswell and a chance encounter with UFO enthusiast Henry Monteith over the Labor Day weekend, Lujan and DellaFlora realized they had a much bigger project on their hands and they devoted the next two years to filming and editing High Strange New Mexico.
They traveled all over New Mexico and beyond, gathering stories and amassing more than 80 hours of footage. Altogether, the pair interviewed about 45 people, most of whom appear in the film. The project was shot on Hi8 video and edited for under $10,000. The first cut of the film was completed in October 1996. A revised 107-minute version was finished in November 1997 and was selected to appear in the 1998 Taos Talking Picture Festival, where it drew a sell-out crowd.
The film was re-edited and re-released in 2002, in the version currently available.
Filmmaker James Lujan planned to produce a five-minute promotional video for the book. However, after a visit to Roswell and a chance encounter with UFO enthusiast Henry Monteith over the Labor Day weekend, Lujan and DellaFlora realized they had a much bigger project on their hands and they devoted the next two years to filming and editing High Strange New Mexico.
They traveled all over New Mexico and beyond, gathering stories and amassing more than 80 hours of footage. Altogether, the pair interviewed about 45 people, most of whom appear in the film. The project was shot on Hi8 video and edited for under $10,000. The first cut of the film was completed in October 1996. A revised 107-minute version was finished in November 1997 and was selected to appear in the 1998 Taos Talking Picture Festival, where it drew a sell-out crowd.
The film was re-edited and re-released in 2002, in the version currently available.