By
Kathryn Skelton
Maine monster hunter Bill Brock has set his sights on UFOs.
Brock, who four years ago starred in the Discovery Channel reality series “Monsters Underground,” is helming a new independent documentary about aliens.
Working with him on “Abducted New England” is a Bangor author whose second book full of Maine alien abductions, sightings and encounters is due out in July.
They’re holding an abduction town hall in Stratham, New Hampshire, on Saturday looking for more stories. Next week, they’ll interview a Bates College professor who has studied abduction phenomena.
“As I get into this, I’m blown away by all the people who’ve had what they feel are real experiences,” said Brock, 46, of Freeport. “I’ve been really well-accepted into the whole weird community — it’s not all cryptozoology.”
The idea for the documentary got its start while Brock was at work on the upcoming web series “Rogue Mysteries” with southern Maine filmmaker Corey Norman.
In shooting that, the pair brought a psychic to the New Hampshire spot where Betty and Barney Hill famously claimed to be abducted in 1961.
“This psychic believed she was speaking to Betty Hill and later on that night, she had some crazy things happen to her, as far as dreams and things she experienced,” Brock said. “That kind of sparked our investigation to look at this whole alien thing more.”
He reached out to Nomar Slevik in Bangor, who came on as the documentary’s producer.
Slevik, 40, a musician and author, believes he had his first UFO sighting at age 4, outside his bedroom window.
“I’ve had quite a few sightings since then, all the way into my adult life,” he said. “My last one was last year at Loring Air Force Base (in Aroostook County). I’d gone there specifically to do an investigation for my new book, and ended up seeing a light in the sky. There’s nothing more than a light in the sky, it could be anything, but it’s truly a UFO, unidentified flying object.”
In researching his first book, “UFOs over Maine,” Slevik said he was already aware of well-known reports at Loring and in the Allagash and was quickly surprised by how many hundreds of others he found.
“Abductions and crop circles and men in black and alien beings and interactions with the military and interactions with the police — I couldn’t believe there was so much,” he said.
In writing, he sets a scene, lays out the facts and lets the reader decide, Slevik said.
“In a documentary, you get to immediately see the person. You get to see the expression on their face,” he said. You get to see if they have some nervous tics because they’re a little uncomfortable. Honestly, it’s a bit charming to see people naturally reacting as they tell their stories.”
They’re collaborating with Kenn Gonneville, whose work includes cinematography on a dozen short films and production assistant on “North Woods Law,” according to his Internet Movie Database page.
They plan to film the two-hour abduction town hall Saturday night at The KRI Center for Consciousness Studies.
“I’ve spoken with a lot of people and sometimes you have to take it with a grain of salt,” Slevik said. “Sometimes it’s like, ‘Oh, my god, this is like talking to my father,’ and I believe them wholeheartedly. Other people, I believe that they believe it. And then some other people, I’m like, ehhhh, I don’t know.”
Brock said they want to include Bates College’s Stephanie Kelley-Romano, an associate professor of rhetoric, to “bring a little bit of science” to the subject.
He’s hoping to release “Abducted New England” in six weeks on DVD and sites such as Amazon. They’re trying to crowd-fund filming expenses. (A $10 donation on Indiegogo snags an assistant producer credit.)
Next up: shooting “Sasquatch in New England,” a documentary based on interviews with people who’ve heard, seen or encountered Bigfoot, set for release this fall.
“In order to make money at this, you have to have a library out there,” Brock said. “You have to have a lot of really awesome product out there for people who want to see the next thing.”
He added, “My goal is to get two out a summer and hopefully at that point, I can do this for a living and travel the country telling people’s stories and research it at the same time. I have a genuine curiosity about, is this stuff real? Or is this something else?”
Weird, Wicked Weird is a monthly feature on the strange, intriguing and unexplained in Maine. Send photos and ideas to kskelton@sunjournal.com.
