WE ARE NOT ALONE:
THE OTHERWORLDLY CINEMA OF UFOS AND COSMIC VISITORS
June – July 2026
Starting this June, coinciding with the release of Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day, LAB111 collaborates with historian and multidisciplinary artist Alexander Bartels to present We Are Not Alone, a journey into extraterrestrial encounters, cosmic intrusion and the strange mythology of contact.
As military and intelligence agencies worldwide once again turn their attention to unidentified aerial phenomena, alien contact has re-entered public imagination, moving from fringe speculation into renewed cultural focus. With Spielberg’s forthcoming film amplifying this resurgence, cinema seems ready to look skyward again in search of fear, wonder and possibility beyond human understanding. From UFOs and abductees to skeptics, believers and hidden infiltrations, the program explores how “the other” bends reality, time and perception.
Across a selection ranging from 1950s classics such as The Day the Earth Stood Still to contemporary works like Under the Skin and Arrival, We Are Not Alone traces how encounters with the unknown have shaped some of cinema’s most unsettling and visionary works. These stories blur the line between revelation and delusion, visitation and invasion, the cosmic and the intimate, revealing how alien life often reflects human desire, anxiety and belief as much as it suggests something beyond.
Alexander Bartels (1993) is a historian with a lifelong obsession for UFO phenomena, about which he has written for NRC Handelsblad. He is part of the collective Wanderwelle, whose music is released through Important Records and presented at venues such as EYE, Paradiso, and Carré. Their debut film was selected for a Gouden Kalf, and they are currently in an ongoing collaboration with photographic artist Roger Ballen.
Bartels will give an introduction for the screenings of Fire In The Sky (June 11th), The Thing (June 18th), Close Encounters Of The Third Kind (June 25th) and Memoria (June 29th).
