Editing Roswell incident (section)

===''Alien Autopsy''===
{{main|Alien Autopsy (1995 film)}}
{{multiple image|perrow = 1|total_width=300
| image1 = Alien Autopsy Fact or Fiction 1995 screenshot cropped.png
| image2 = Jose_Chung_alien_autopsy_screenshot.png
| footer = The 1995 film ''Alien Autopsy: Fact or Fiction'' (top) purported to show an alien recovered at Roswell. The extremely influential program was "aggressively satirized" the following year by ''The X-Files'' in a sequence (bottom) that "bears an uncanny resemblance in its visual style to the infamous ''Alien Autopsy''".<ref name="Levy-p32">{{harvnb|Levy|Mendlesohn|2019|p=32}}</ref><ref name="Lavery-p17">{{harvnb|Lavery|Hague|Cartwright|1996|p=17}}</ref> 
}}

Pseudo-documentaries, most notably ''Alien Autopsy: Fact or Fiction'', have taken a major role in shaping popular opinion of Roswell.<ref name="Goldberg-2001-p219">{{harvnb|Goldberg|2001|p=219}}</ref> In 1995, British entrepreneur [[Ray Santilli]] claimed to have footage of an alien autopsy filmed after the 1947 Roswell crash, purchased from an elderly Army Air Force cameraman.<ref>{{harvnb|Korff|1997|pp=203–204}}</ref> ''Alien Autopsy'' centers around Santilli's hoaxed footage, which it presents as a probable artifact of the government's investigation into Roswell.<ref>{{harvnb|Frank|2023|p=1101}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Korff|1997|pp=212–213}}</ref> The purported cameraman Barnett had died in 1967 without ever serving in the military,<ref>{{harvnb|Korff|1997|p=213}}</ref> and visual effects expert [[Stan Winston]] told newspapers that ''Alien Autopsy'' had misrepresented his conclusion that Santilli's footage was an obvious fake.<ref name="Levy-p32" /> In a 2006 documentary, Santilli admitted that the footage was fabricated, filmed on a set built in a [[London]] living room.<ref>{{harvnb|Frank|2023|p=1109}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Lagerfield|2016}}</ref>

Over twenty million viewers watched the purported autopsy.<ref name="ABC-News-2005-p2"/> Fox aired the program immediately before and implicitly connected to the fictional ''X-Files'', which later parodied the film.<ref name="Lavery-p17" /><ref>{{harvnb|Knight|2013|p=50}}</ref> ''Alien Autopsy'' established a template for future pseudo-documentaries built on questioning a presumed government cover-up.<ref name="Goldberg-2001-p219"/> Though thoroughly debunked, core UFO believers, many of whom still accepted earlier hoaxes like the Aztec crash,<ref>{{harvnb|Frank|2023|p=1117|quote="But even after revelations like these, the stories don’t die. You can still find people who will adamantly tell you that a flying saucer crashed in Aztec, New Mexico, and that Alien Autopsy represented a real event."}}</ref> weighed the autopsy footage as additional evidence strengthening the connection between Roswell and extraterrestrials.<ref>{{harvnb|Ricketts|2011|p=250}}</ref>