See what Spirit Magazine had to say about "High Strange New Mexico" in its Winter 1998 issue
 

"High Strange New Mexico" a two-hour documentary film, is one media project that doesn't set out to "prove" anything. The brainchild of the Taos Pueblo filmmaker James Lujan and Albuquerque Journal reporter Anthony DellaFlora, "High Strange" takes a sympathetic and non-judgmental look at New Mexico's colorful subculture. Lujan and DellaFlora, who maintain "a healthy agnosticism," turn on the camera and let it roll. The result is a delightful and often hilarious potpourri of modern-day perceptions of the UFO phenomenon. The film skillfully balances the views of UFO believers, skeptics, folklorists, politicians, Native Americans, Hispanics, New Agers, abductees, researchers, cops, military people and a host of UFO "experiences."

Lujan and DellaFlora came away from the project impressed by the sincerity of the participants, but still won't venture a guess as to the "reality" of the phenomena. Why does the Land of Enchantment have so much "high strangeness?" Folklorist Peter White, a professor at the University of New Mexico, speculates that it's because "nowhere else in the United States do you have such a juxtaposition of ancient medieval culture with modern technological science." White relates the story of a Mora, New Mexico man who as recently as 1939, was tried for witchcraft because his wife said he turned into a frog at night.

Albuquerque, NM housewife Barbara Glasgow, refutes White's folklore theories with a harrowing account of her 1958 abduction by alien beings. Abducted from her car, Glasgow claims to have been taken aboard a UFO and subjected to medical procedures by an alien "doctor" who was "the most ungodly thing I'd ever seen." She recalls her embarrassment because "I hadn't shaved my legs."
The film's most chilling footage features geological engineer, Phil Schneider, who predicts his own "murder." Schneider claims to have been employed in 1979, as an engineer building a secret underground military base near Dulce, New Mexico. The subject of endless speculation and rumor in the UFO community, the base was supposedly a joint venture by the government and space aliens. According to Schneider, a dispute led to a massive shoot-out between the "large grey aliens" and government forces. Supposedly 66 agents died at the hands of the "alien humanoids." Schneider himself claims to have killed two aliens in self-defense."

Schneider states: Eleven of my best friends have been murdered, eight of them called suicide. Murder by suicide I call it. I will break every law that it takes to talk my head off.

Schneider was found dead shortly thereafter. His death was ruled a suicide. The coroner's report read: "Strangled self with surgical tubing." Copies of the autopsy report were obtained by Gabe Valdez, who served as a state policeman in the Dulce area during the 1970s and 1980s. Valdez termed the incident "highly suspicious" and called the investigation "badly botched." He also noted that it was odd that the police officers on the scene had not noticed the tubing around Schneider's neck and that no toxicology report was done.

Despite its tense moments, "High Strange New Mexico" presents an exhilarating kaleidoscope of viewpoints and leaves the audience to draw their own conclusions. The film recently played to an enthusiastic standing-room-only crowd at the 1998 Taos Talking Picture Festival.