Today, September 19, 2011, marks the 50th anniversary of the Betty & Barney Hill UFO abduction case. The recent coverage has been fairly extensive, with Fox news even getting in on the act. And it now appears Hollywood producer Bryce Zabel of Dark Skies fame plans to update the The UFO Incident, the 1975 TV movie about the Hills, by way of Kathleen Marden & Stanton Friedman’s contemporary book, Captured! The Betty and Barney Hill UFO Experience. With all this activity, including Strange Septembers: The Hill Abduction & The Exeter Encounter, the new feature-length documentary by Jeff & Jess Finn, there are a lot of sparks flying in the ufology community!

Check out the excellent Exeter article’s slide show for a photo of the new Exeter UFO Festival t-shirt, designed by Jess Finn, co-director of Strange Septembers!

In honor of today being the big day, here’s a recent feature article from The Wire out of Portsmouth, NH.

New Hampshire UFO Research
Saturday, August 27, 2011

The 3rd Annual Exeter UFO Festival

UFO enthusiasts from all over the country will be descending on Exeter New Hampshire next weekend for it’s 3rd Annual Exeter UFO festival on Saturday September 3rd, 2011.

read more…

Here’s a taste of the forthcoming documentary, Strange Septembers: The Hill Abduction & The Exeter Encounter, now featuring James Earl Jones and Estelle Parsons!

Strange Septembers will have its world premiere at this year’s Exeter UFO Festival, Saturday, September 3, 2011. There will be a FREE one-time screening at 10:30AM. As with the rest of the festival, NO TICKETS ARE NECESSARY!

See you in September…

James Earl Jones and Estelle Parsons, who played Barney and Betty Hill in the landmark 1975 TV movie, The UFO Incident, have received top billing in Strange Septembers: The Hill Abduction & The Exeter Encounter. Jeff Finn recently flew from Los Angeles to New York and interviewed the two legendary actors and longtime friends.

With the documentary well over a year in the making, Jones’s and Parsons’s shared discussion proved to be the final interview, and the icing on the cake for the independent film by Jeff and his wife, Jess. Strange Septembers is set to have its premiere at the 2011 Exeter UFO Festival.

May the UFOrce be with you!

Here’s the Strange Septembers Facebook page.

Betty And Barney Hill UFO Abduction Story Commemorated On Official N.H. Highway Plaque
by Lee Speigel/Huffington Post
July 25, 2011

New Hampshire — the “Live Free or Die” state — has done something that may surprise UFO believers as well as skeptics. It has just erected a historical marker commemorating the 50th anniversary close encounter of Betty and Barney Hill.

The Hills’ story is undoubtedly the most famous of all UFO experiences because (as the official plaque reads) it was “the first widely-reported UFO abduction report in the United States.”

It was also the first time that anyone in this country had reported undergoing invasive physical examinations at the hands of short, “grey” aliens.

“To tell you the truth, we were very excited about the prospect,” said Elizabeth Muzzey, director of the N.H. Division of Historical Resources, which created the new historic plaque.
read more…

Alien beings will return to Exeter
Third annual festival is in September
By KATHLEEN D. BAILEY
July 05, 2011

EXETER­ — The Exeter UFO Festival will mark its third anniversary Labor Day weekend with a new sponsor, new and returning speakers, and a celebration of New Hampshire’s most famous alien sighting.

Dean Merchant, the festival’s organizer, said businesses and nonprofits will combine their talents for a day of out-of-this-world fun Saturday, Sept. 3, in downtown Exeter.
read more…

Steve Firmani is the founder and Director of MUFON New England, a joint effort to organize and merge the Mutual UFO Network’s New England state chapters in CT/RI/MA/NH/ME, and VT. Steve has also served as New England SIP Coordinator for the MUFON project with Bigelow Aerospace Corporation, and was honored as Co-State Director of the Year at MUFON’s 2009 Symposium in Denver.

Over his career, Steve has investigated the full spectrum of case types as well as several abduction cases, and his talk will focus upon the 2010 Laconia, New Hampshire abduction case.

We are delighted to welcome back Steve as a guest speaker! Learn more at: http://www.mufon.com/MapPages/NewEngland.html

The Exeter UFO Festival is over the moon about adding ufologist and author, Kathleen Marden, as a guest speaker! Kathleen, a New Hampshire native, spoke at our inaugural event in 2009, and she was again on hand with co-author and fellow researcher, Stanton Friedman, in 2010.

Kathleen is the niece of Betty and Barney Hill and has engaged in UFO research and investigation for over 20 years. She will be joining us in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Betty and Barney Hill abduction case.

Learn more about Kathleen Marden at: kathleen-marden.com.