News

People who claim to have been kidnapped by aliens have a tendency to believe in fantasies and suffer disturbing experiences in their sleep, scientists have found.

But the researchers say “abductees” also believe in their experiences so deeply that they display real stress symptoms similar to those of traumatised battlefield veterans.

The latest research on the “taken” phenomenon was unveiled at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Denver.

“This underscores the power of emotional belief,” Professor Richard McNally, from Harvard University, told the BBC.

‘Abductees’
“If you genuinely believe you’ve been traumatised and recall these memories, you’ll show the same psycho-physiologic emotional reactions as people who really have been traumatised.”

A group of abductees told the BBC about their experiences on Saturday. One of them said: “I’ve had several encounters with alien craft and I’ve had an alien implant removed from my body.”

New-age beliefs
It was typical of the stories they all had to relate. It is thought there are about four million Americans who believe they have been abducted by extraterrestrials.

Scientists believe this clearly is not true, so why do abductees believe they have been taken?

Professor McNally has found that many of them share personality traits and sleep disorders.

“Most of them had pre-existing new-age beliefs – they were into bio-energetic therapies, past lives, astral projection, tarot cards, and so on,” he said.

“Second, they have episodes of apparent sleep paralysis accompanied by hallucinations.”

Lab experiments
These frightening experiences usually prompted the individuals to visit therapists, who would frequently suggest alien abduction as a cause – an explanation which the abductees readily accepted, he said.

Professor McNally has come up with a rational explanation of alien abduction experiences which was endorsed by other psychologists in Denver. He said the individuals conformed to a “common recipe”.

But the researcher stressed that many of the people really did believe what they were saying.

In laboratory experiments, individuals were asked to relate their experiences. These stories were played back to them and their physical responses recorded.

“When a Vietnam vet has his experiences played back to him in the lab of some combat event, his heart rate goes up and you see an increase in sweating. If you don’t have post-traumatic stress disorder, you don’t react that way.

“The heart-rate responses and sweating responses were at least as great in the alien abductees when they heard their memories of being taken and molested by space aliens and subjected to experiments as those of people with genuine traumatic events.”

Study Explores ‘False Memories’
By JEREMY B. REFF
Contributing Writer

People who claim they were abducted by aliens show more intense emotional reactions to their memories than some Vietnam War veterans, according to a Harvard study released Sunday.
Most researchers hailed the findings as significant in the field of recovered and false memories.

But a spokesperson for one controversial Harvard professor said the study may demonstrate something more significant—that humans may actually experience contact with a “third realm.”

Professor John E. Mack, a psychiatry professor at Harvard Medical School and a popular writer and commentator on extraterrestrial activity, has disputed the notion that alien abduction claims are fabricated. His spokesperson cites the study as evidence.

Most experts, however, say the study’s findings, presented by Professor of Psychology Richard J. McNally at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), show that emotional trauma can stem from imagined experiences.

“The core findings of this study underscore the power of emotional belief. If you genuinely believe to have been traumatized—even by an alien abduction, which we think is clearly fanciful—you show the psycho-physiological profile of those who have been,” McNally said.

In his study, McNally read abduction accounts both to subjects claiming to have been taken by aliens and to neutral controls, and found significant physiological differences in the reactions of the two groups.

The average increase in heart-rate of those who claimed abduction was 7.8 beats-per-minute, compared with no significant response from subjects in the control group. When Vietnam veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder were subjected to the same procedure, the average increase in heart-rate is 3.2 beats-per-minute, McNally said.

William J. Bueché, communications director for Mack’s Center for Psychology and Social Change, said the physiological reactions may stem from contact with a spiritual reality that exists apart from the material and the non-material.

Bueché said McNally’s study is “a significant landmark in alien encounter research.”

He criticized McNally, however, for what he called his “leap of faith.”

“McNally assumes that the alien encounters are just beliefs…but that’s not clear-cut,” Bueché said.

McNally said he and Mack agree that the subjects had intense emotional experiences, and were not mentally ill; but he added he was “very skeptical” of the abduction narratives themselves.

This disagreement over the reality of the abductions is not new. In 1995, then-Dean of the Medical School Daniel C. Tosteson ’44 took the rare step of publicly warning Mack about the manner in which his research on alien abduction was affecting the academic standards of the Medical School.

Mack was forced to withdraw Harvard affiliation from his center, and asked by the Medical School to work with other researchers who were not immediately sympathetic to his work.

Some scientists said Mack’s research methods cast doubt on his interpretation of McNally’s study.

Arnold S. Relman, former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine and chair of an ad-hoc committee at the Medical School which investigated Mack’s research, said Mack has “only gone through the motions” of producing more objective research.

But Bueché said the accusations against Mack were “trivial” and that since 1994, Mack had brought together researchers in multiple disciplines, including McNally, to do research on alien abduction.

Relman, however, said he has been “disappointed” with what he called Mack’s lack of objectivity.

“If I were dean, I might have said to him, ‘John, for God’s sake, take a look at what you’re doing, you’re making a fool of yourself, and if you believe that you’re onto something of fantastic import… get some help from your colleagues,’” Relman said.

People who say they’ve been abducted by aliens believe so deeply in their encounters that they suffer real stress symptoms resembling those of traumatized war veterans, BBC News reports.

“This underscores the power of emotional belief,” the BBC quotes Prof. Richard McNally of Harvard University saying.

“If you genuinely believe you’ve been traumatized and recall these memories, you’ll show the same psycho-physiologic emotional reactions as people who really have been traumatized,” McNally adds.

The research, presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, also found that the “abductees” tend to believe in fantasies and are afflicted with disturbing experiences in their sleep, such as sleep paralysis accompanied by hallucinations.

Researchers tape-recorded the subjects talking about their memories. When the recordings were played back later, the purported abductees perspired and their heart rates jumped.

McNally said three of the 10 subjects showed physical reactions “at least as great” as people suffering post traumatic stress disorder from war, crime, rape and other violent incidents.

“This underscores the power of emotional belief,” McNally said.

DENVER – They have terrified those who experience them and baffled those who investigate them.

But alien abductions – along with ghosts and other paranormal visions that have spooked mankind for centuries – have a simple explanation, scientists are claiming.

A study suggests that visits from aliens and night-time ghostly encounters all result from a surprisingly common sleep disorder.

Professor Richard McNally said his research suggested a condition called sleep paralysis can account for many types of paranormal experiences.

In a study of those who claimed to have been abducted by aliens, he found all suffered from the condition.

In sleep paralysis, victims begin to awake from deep sleep and become partially conscious of their surroundings but remain paralysed.

Crucially, dreams can still intrude into their consciousness, appearing to be genuine experiences.

“Almost one in three of us will have episodes of sleep paralysis at some stage in our lives,” Professor McNally told a science conference.

One in 20, he added, experience sleep paralysis and vivid hallucinations. Professor McNally, of Harvard University, tested 10 adults who claimed to have been abducted by aliens and a similar number of people who did not.

“Crucially, the people who claimed they had been abducted had all had an episode of sleep paralysis,” Professor McNally said.

How people interpreted this experience depended on their culture, Professor McNally added.

“Sleep paralysis … has been reported in many different ways in many different cultures throughout history,” he said.

“In Newfoundland, it’s called being visited by the ‘old hag’. In the southern US, it’s being ‘ridden by the witch’. In the Middle Ages, it was interpreted as being visited by agents of the Devil.

In Massachusetts, it’s being taken up in a space craft and molested by aliens.”

Abduction by aliens is really stressful
By Mark Henderson

PEOPLE who claim to have been abducted by aliens suffer many of the same trauma symptoms as Vietnam veterans and World Trade Centre survivors, even though their memories are not real.

Researchers have found that they show many of the physical and psychological effects normally seen in post-traumatic stress disorder, including nightmares, anxiety, racing heartbeats and sweaty palms, when recalling experiences.

The findings, by a team at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, suggest that most abductees are not mentally ill and genuinely believe that they have been kidnapped by visitors from outer space and that their false memories were induced by a phenomenon known as sleep paralysis.

Sleep paralysis, which affects 30 per cent of the population at some stage in their lives, occurs when a person wakes during rapid eye movement sleep, when dreaming takes place and the entire body is paralysed with the exception of the eyes. It can often lead to frightening visions called hypnopompic (upon awakening) hallucinations as elements of a dream impinge upon wakefulness. Sufferers usually report being unable to move while seeing shadowy figures around their beds, feeling electric currents coursing through their bodies, or levitating.

According to Richard McNally, Professor of Psychology at Harvard, the phenomenon probably explains the witch crazes of the 16th and 17th centuries, ghost sightings and scores of other paranormal events. “Today, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it’s interpreted as abduction by space aliens,” he told the conference.

In his study, Professor McNally sought to investigate whether false memories could be as traumatic as genuine ones by examining “the emotional reactions of people whose traumatic memories are almost certainly false — people who claim to remember having been abducted by space aliens”.

He asked ten “abductees” to record tapes of their experiences, along with other memories that were either positive, neutral or negative, then analysed their reactions as they listened to the playback.

The abductees had psycho-physiological responses similar to those seen in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) patients. “With PTSD, we find these heightened responses when, for example, a Vietnam veteran hears his memories played back to him. The degree of response was at least as great in those who claimed to have been subjected to experiments on space ships as it was in those who have been traumatised by genuine events.”

None of the subjects was mentally ill. Professor McNally said: “It’s more mundane than mental illness, or actually being abducted, but it’s a frightening event, and listening to it provokes physiological reactions as strong as PTSD.”

All ten abductees recounted reasonably consistent details of their experiences, Professor McNally said, but these were almost certainly culturally determined. “Their memories were of being subjected to sexual and medical probing on spaceships. I certainly think we can say The X-Files probably helped with all that.”

Sleep paralysis was the likely explanation for many paranormal phenomena. All the subjects in the study had visited “recovered memory” practitioners before recalling their alien experiences. [Note from CPSC: That claim, in the last sentence, is not true]

American Association for the Advancement of Science:
Studies question reliability of memory
By Clive Cookson in Denver

Frightening new evidence of the brain’s susceptibility to suggestion was presented yesterday to the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Psychologists described recent experiments in which they implanted false memories, altered perceptions through subliminal messages, and demonstrated the intense emotional distress of people who believed they had been abducted by aliens.

…

Richard McNally of Harvard University studies 10 people who had reported being abducted by aliens and subjected to traumatic experiences such as sexual examination on a spaceship. Participants recorded these
experiences on audiotapes, which were played back to them later in the laboratory
while researchers measured their heart rate, skin sweating and muscle tension.

The physiological symptoms of emotional distress shown by the abductees during playback were similar to those of people suffering from real post-traumatic stress. Prof McNally said his experiment should sound a warning to some psychotherapists who believed “recovered memories” of past traumas such as childhood sex abuse are genuine just because they induce intense emotion. “The intensity of emotional reaction associated with a memory cannot confirm the authenticity of the memory,” he said.

By Alan Boyle
MSNBC

DENVER, Feb. 16 — People who say they’ve been abducted by aliens exhibit the same physiological reactions as people who have experienced more conventional kinds of trauma, a Harvard psychologist reported Sunday. He says the research provides evidence that even false memories can leave real emotional scars. However, he doesn’t expect to convince the abductees themselves that they’re wrong.

ALIEN ABDUCTIONS have become an integral element of American popular culture — due in part to television programs like “The X-Files” and the recent miniseries “Taken,” in which abductions are a common plot element. Surveys consistently indicate that about a third of all adult Americans believe extraterrestrials have visited Earth.

Harvard psychology professor Richard McNally, author of the forthcoming book “Remembering Trauma,” isn’t one of them. Indeed, he said he selected the subject for study precisely because memories of such abductions were “almost certainly false.”

The point of McNally’s research, presented here at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, was to see whether the emotional impact of a false memory generated physiological signs similar to the post-traumatic stress suffered after authentic experiences. Along the way, McNally developed a profile for typical abductees.

PORTRAIT OF AN ALIEN ABDUCTEE

The Harvard research team placed an ad in Boston newspapers to recruit their subjects. Most of those who responded were pranksters, but 10 people were selected as sincere reporters of abduction experiences.

McNally said the screening interviews indicated that the typical abductee:

[http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s786169.htm]

Even false memories of being taken by a UFO can trigger post-traumatic stress

Alien abduction stories may be triggered by false memories, but sufferers still exhibit many of the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, according to a U.S. study.

Speaking at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Denver, Professor Richard McNally, a psychologist at Harvard University in Boston, said people who recover false memories exhibit many of the same emotional effects as real trauma victims.

His team studied 10 adults who reported having been abducted by aliens, and compared these to eight control subjects who denied ever having been abducted, to measure physiological responses elicited when recalling these memories.

The ‘abductees’ were asked to record a narrative of their abduction, then another stressful experience in their life, followed by a happy memory and a neutral memory. Tapes of the discussion were later played back to the participants while their heart rate and galvanic skin response (or sweat response) was measured.

The control group, who denied ever having been abducted by aliens, were also measured whilst listening to the same tapes.

McNally found that those claiming to have been abducted exhibited the same physiological responses – increased heart rate and sweating – as victims of real trauma who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), such as Vietnam veterans and firemen.

“This underscores the power of emotional belief,” McNally told reporters.
But there were significant differences between these adults and PTSD sufferers, said McNally. None of the participants were diagnosed as mentally ill, and when asked whether they would go through the experience of alien abduction again if they were given the chance, almost all of the participants said yes.

Many remembered the experience as terrifying, but also very spiritual, said McNally. This differs greatly from the experience of a PTSD sufferer.
Certain characteristics typified the subjects who believed that they had been abducted, McNally noted. ‘Abductees’ professed to have pre-existing ‘New Age’ beliastefs such as astral travelling, and a proneness to fantasy. Most importantly, they had episodes of ‘sleep-paralysis’ accompanied by hypnopompic (or upon-waking) hallucinations.

‘Sleep-paralysis’ occurs when a person wakens from REM sleep (named after the rapid-eye movement made in deep sleep) and is partly conscious but not fully awake. Dreams often intrude into reality in this state. About 30% of the population experiences sleep-paralysis, and 5% experience hypnopompic hallucinations.

Eight out of the 10 study participants who believed they had been abducted had visited a psychologist or memory recovery specialist, which McNally believes could have translated their waking dreams and hallucinations into ‘memories’ of alien abduction.

Maryke Steffens – ABC Science Online

Touched, a documentary by Laurel Chiten, offers a uniquely contemplative perspective on the alien abduction phenomenon. It avoids cheesy flying saucer footage and tabloid hyperbole to focus on real people looking for the truth behind their unique experiences. Chiten presents the “experiencers” and their stories with sensitivity and without judgment, and does not attempt to prove or dispove their theories. She was introduced to their world by John Mack, M.D., a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and Harvard Medical School professor whose research into alien abductions has brought him professional ridicule. Initially uninterested, Chiten became intruiged once she met the human beings behind the wild stories. Mack is an eccentric presence throughout the film, which allows him a dignity he doesn’t often receive in the press. Along with Harvard colleague Alan Dershowitz, he provides some amusingly outspoken commentary on the university’s academic politics. Brazilian experiencers and a surprisingly open-minded Vatican demonologist also provide intruiging commentary. Screening at the Museum of Fine Arts on April 11 at 8pm and April 16 at 6pm. See http://www.mfa.org for more information.

One snowy Boston evening changed the course of things for director Laurel Chiten. “I feel like John Mack abducted me,” she laughs.

“I don’t know what was going on that night, I was being so goofy, making everyone laugh.” The snow prevented a colleague from introducing her film, THE JEW IN THE LOTUS. So she arrived at the MFA, appealingly disheveled, to take his place. It was her sense of humor and her edge that prompted John Mack to seek her out after the film. “I didn’t even know who he was. He wanted me to make a film about alien abductions.”

So who is John Mack? Though a professor of psychiatry at Harvard and a Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer, his celebrity is arguably more attached to his research on alien encounters than more “suitable” subjects for a person of his ilk. Since publishing the best selling book Abduction: Human Encounters with Aliens in 1997 (and outing him as a presumed extraterrestrial “believer” on shows like OPRAH and the TODAY SHOW), Mack grew frustrated, even bored by the predictable questioning of whether accounts of abductions were true or false. His next book on the subject, Passport to the Cosmos, is meant to move beyond the question of “if” and to a question that he believes is more relevant to earthly life “what do alien abductions mean for us?”

Chiten’s immediate reaction to exploring the topic of alien abduction was to push the project away. “I knew absolutely nothing about the subject, and more importantly, I didn’t care about it.” Her other films like TWITCH AND SHOUT and THE JEW IN THE LOTUS came from her kitchkes, they were personal to her. When she finally started sifting through the first-person accounts of missing time, bodily probing, sperm extraction, impregnation, and apocalyptic warnings, Chiten reacted like most first-time abductees: she was frightened. She acknowledges that the topic called up her deepest fears, fears she cannot necessarily name. “I was emphatic about not making this film,” she reiterates.

But Mack’s persistence led to an encounter at the Harvard faculty club, where Chiten first heard “experiencers” (as they call themselves) speak. She was struck by how sane the speakers appeared. “One woman reached out her hand to describe how it felt to be touched by an alien . . . and she started to cry. Forget aliens, it was so human to me, this longing to connect.” It is the translation of ostensibly inhuman experiences into unavoidably human terms that Chiten explores in TOUCHED.

TOUCHED is Chiten’s third documentary. For someone who never set out to be a director, she’s developed an impressive niche. She started with two series: TWO IN TWENTY, a five-episode satirical soap and a ten-part video series based on Robin Casarjian’s book, House of Healing. Would-be-directors may not want to hear Chiten’s thoughts about joining her ranks. “Don’t become a filmmaker unless you have to. It is extremely hard work.” And has she made money from her films? Not really. Yet every time she engages a new subject, she falls in love, only to revisit the stress and anxiety of wondering if the film will ever be seen or appreciated once completed. Since she is just wrapping production on TOUCHED, in preparation for its February 20 debut at the MFA, she admits to being stretched a little thin.

Fortunately, she surrounded herself with a great crew: “I attract people who are much smarter than I am, they make me look really good.” Perhaps too modest, Chiten has had colleagues claim that it is her credibility as a filmmaker that will get them through the door of seeing her latest, potentially controversial film.

TOUCHED has been unique for Chiten because it essentially has three coproducers: Chiten along with editor Sabrina Zanella-Foresi and DP Andy Abraham Wilson. Even with their camaraderie, the crew approached the subject matter with differing philosophies. “Let’s just say I was Scully and Andy was Mulder. We actually called each other that.” Apparently “Mulder” was eager to experience his own UFO ride.

One unexpected (and still highly confidential) occurrence dramatically affected the film at its zero hour. Let’s just say something happened to a character that in Chiten’s words “had a ripple effect on the entire film.” She promises the newly integrated material makes for an even more intense ending.

“TOUCHED is really the most provocative film I’ve done.” Chiten wishes the film could tour the world, with she and Mack answering Q and A. Not that the film is about answers. But it opens up questions about the reorganization and reevaluation of strongly held beliefs about the cosmos, the divine, and the ever-pressing need for human connection. Chiten calls it a “launch pad” for discussing the pain and healing of transformation, inevitably and ultimately human.

Chiten’s next projects are in various stages of production. She is working on “Freedom Behind Bars”, in collaboration with The Lionheart Foundation, about a ten-day meditation retreat inside a maximum-security prison in Alabama as well as “Twisted” about a neurological disorder even more unknown than Tourette’s Syndrome. Chiten describes, “like a TWITCH AND SHOUT two.” Both of these have footage shot and she is looking for funding.

Chiten chalks up her chance meeting with Mack as serendipitous. But when asked about how she chooses her next film project she says, “Most of the time I don’t pick a project, they pick me.” Maybe TOUCHED will explain exactly who “they” are. Or maybe it’s more exhilarating not to know.

TOUCHED premieres at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston on February 20th at 8 pm. Both Laurel Chiten and John E. Mack will be present.. And will screen again on March 9 at 12:20 pm, Friday, April 11, at 8 pm with John Mack present, and Wednesday, April 16, at 6 pm. For more information about TOUCHED or Laurel Chiten, visit www.blinddogfilms.com.

Erin Trahan is a freelance writer who frequently contributes to Imagine Magazine. She is a member of the Board for Women in Film/Video New England and lives in Jamaica Plain, MA.

Drawn to Human Drama
Director Laurel Chiten delves into the world of alien abductees in her latest documentary “Touched”
By Amy Roeder

Director Laurel Chiten says that she “keeps making the same film over and over again.” Of course, the parallels between Chiten’s stories of alien abductees, individuals with Tourette’s Syndrome, and a Jewish writer and group of rabbis on a trip to meet the Dalai Lama may not seem obvious, but each is driven by the search for a sense of connection, Chiten explains.

Chiten recently completed the documentary, “Touched,” which will premiere on February 20, 2003 at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. The film focuses on people who believe that they have experienced alien encounters. This is not the typical tabloid treatment of the topic, but rather an exploration of real people looking for answers. Whether or not the subjects’ stories are real, it is clear that each individual’s life has been irrevocably transformed by their quest to solve the mystery of their experience.

The central figure in the story is John Mack, M.D., a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and Harvard Medical School professor who suffered public and professional ridicule when he became a “believer.” Mack approached Chiten about making a film based on his research. She initially had no interest in the subject, but agreed to accompany Mack to hear some alleged abductees, or “experiencers,” speak. Chiten became intrigued once she met the human beings behind the wild stories of bodily probing and alien/human-hybrid breeding programs. She wondered, “What happens when the unexplained intrudes into our lives, and how do lives and relationships respond when credulity is strained to the breaking point?” The resulting film is “not really about aliens,” Chiten said. “It’s about what people do when they’re dealt something difficult.”

“I’m interested in underdog stories,” Chiten said, “giving a voice to people outside of society’s norm. The films are all about going on a journey. And they all have a spiritual underpinning, and a similar sense of humor.”

Chiten finds storytelling to be the most compelling aspect of filmmaking. A certified American Sign Language interpreter, she started her career writing and directing deaf theater productions. She was drawn to film as a way to use her own voice. Her first major project was as producer, director and co-writer or the 5-part satirical lesbian soap opera, “Two in Twenty. ” Originally shown on public access, the series has attained cult status on home video.

She created her landmark documentary about people living with Tourette’s Syndrome, “Twitch and Shout,” with the intention of following it up with a narrative film. Diagnosed with a mild case of Tourette’s herself, Chiten hoped to raise awareness about this often misunderstood genetic neurological disorder which can cause uncontrollable muscle tics and vocal expressions. The film “put Tourette’s on the map,” Chiten said, and eventually garnered nationwide airplay on the PBS series “P.O.V.,” in addition to an Emmy nomination and numerous other honors. However, after five years in production, she was left debt-ridden, exhausted and vowing never to make another film.

But Chiten did not keep that vow for long. Looking for spiritual solace on a Buddhist chat room one night, she discovered the book “The Jew in the Lotus” by Roger Kamenetz, a best-selling account of the 1990 visit of eight rabbis to India to meet the Dalai Lama and share “the secret of Jewish spiritual survival in exile.” Kamenetz, who was recovering from the death of his baby, tagged along to chronicle the event,
and was transformed by the experience. Chiten was inspired to take on the difficult task of translating a book with very little narrative into a film. Over the course of production, the theme of the film evolved into an exploration of the ways in which spirituality can help people deal with suffering.

“Filmmaking is a lot like falling in love,” Chiten wrote for the premiere of “The Jew in the Lotus” at the 1998 San Francisco Jewish Film Festival. “We have no control over who we fall in love with. … I never look for a story but wait until I ‘fall in love’ with something that I simply cannot say no to. Then I become elated and driven totally amnesiac, forgetting how difficult the ‘relationship’ can be.”

“The Jew in the Lotus” was broadcast nationwide on PBS’ “Independent Lens,” and has screened around the world. It was honored with the Most Outstanding Personal Vision award from the New England Film and Video Festival.

Among Chiten’s other projects is “Houses of Healing,” a 10-part series she produced based on Robin Casarjian’s emotional awareness course for prisoners. Chiten also is a frequent public speaker, and a teacher at the Boston Film and Video Foundation, Maine Photographic Workshops and the Digital Media Workshops. An artist-inresidence at several prestigious artists’ colonies, Chiten was honored with the Artist’s Fellowship for creativity in video production from the Massachusetts Council for the Arts and Humanities in 1987. She served as a documentary juror at the 2001 Florida Film Festival.

Chiten said that she still hopes to make a narrative film some day, but says, “Documentary ideas keep presenting themselves to me. Who knows what I’ll do next?”

Amy Roeder is a Boston-based freelance writer.