Planetary Citizen Honorees

Paul Davids

Film Writer, Producer, Director

With the public being spun in a vast media game that seems designed to confuse, distort and frighten in one’s own search for the truth regarding the question of whether we are alone in our vast universe, there comes to mind an individual by the name of Paul Davidswho can answer such a question. Paul Davids became a ufology enthusiast when he was an eye witness to a daylight UFO in 1987. Paul Davids, Hollywood producer, writer and director, as well as author of numerous books, is best known as executive producer and co-writer of the Showtime film Roswell , starring Kyle MacLachlan, Martin Sheen and Dwight Yoakam. The movie was nominated for a Golden Globe Award as Best TV Motion Picture of 1994. With all the controversy over the Roswell incident, Davids not only examined the case for ten years, but passionately fought through four years of rejection to finally get the movie Roswell made. He states, "I fought for one reason—which had nothing to do with entrepreneurship or fostering a cottage industry. I wanted the truth to get out there, and it has." In the search for the truth trying to separate fact, fiction and spin regarding the ufology subject, Paul Davids is one Hollywood director/writer who knows no compromise when it comes to revealing and standing by his convictions that we are not alone in our vast universe regardless of government cover up and media propaganda.

In addition to the Roswell film, Davids has three other films to his credit. In all four of his films there is a common theme that concerns individuals who were misunderstood in their own time and suffered for their art or their beliefs. She Dances Alone is about the greatest ballet dancer in the world, Vaslav Nijinsky, who eventually succumbed to schizophrenia and spent many years confined to a mental institution. Timothy Leary’s Dead is a featured documentary biography of the Harvard professor who introduced psychedelic or mind manifesting drugs in the 60’s and who was called by President Nixon the most dangerous man alive. His most recent film, Starry Night , is Davids’ first effort as a feature film director where he takes on the challenge of presenting more than a biography of Van Gogh. Davids creates an extension of Van Gogh’s life into the present in order to dramatize some timeless truths about: who determines what constitutes "great art," greed, and insensitivity in society. Like Vaslav Nijinsty in She Dances Alone , Major Jesse Marcel in Roswell , and Timothy Leary in Timothy Leary’s Dead , Van Gogh in Starry Night was truly one of history’s unrecognized, rejected and misunderstood individualists.

We would like to honor and recognize Paul Davids for his independence of spirit and courage to go against established traditions and to believe in personal convictions even though it may result in being ignored or dismissed in one’s lifetime.