But you see the same traits and actions from groups who, whether it is political ideologies or religion, will defend themselves and their beliefs and always ignore the evidence. Flat earth is the ultimate conspiracy theory, because most people can agree the Earth is in fact a globe. Simpson case, and even he said flat earth was a step too far for him. I had worked with a camera operator who was a huge conspiracy theorist, like he had solved the O.J. When we started making the documentary, we realized we had an opportunity to use flat earthers as an extreme example of conspiracy theorists.

What was it about flat earthers that interested you? I will say we didn’t set out to make a film to make fun of the flat earth community, or anything that made fun of them in a tongue-in-cheek way. Which I can say is not true, but nobody is going to believe me anyways if I say that. People researched our IMDB profiles and came to some conclusions about us, that we’re not who we say we are. There were conspiracy videos made about us. There were people who were convinced we were part of a government conspiracy to cover everything up. There were people who didn’t want to speak to us. Recently, we talked to Clark about why flat earthers interested him, the perils of believing in alternate truths, whether or not we should treat their community more seriously, and more.

This is all embedded in a larger discussion about conspiracy theorists and the dangers of anti-intellectualism. There’s a lot to unpack here, from dating sites specifically for flat earthers to one of the subjects’ zany DIY experiments to prove once and for all the Earth isn't round. Clark’s film spends the time to understand who these people are, and what motivates them to believe in something so easily disproven. If you’re looking for a documentary that outright dismisses everything these people believe in, this isn’t it. Clark’s curiosity brought him to the Flat Earth International Conference, where he met Mark Sargent, a popular YouTube star and flat earther who became one of the main characters in Clark’s documentary film Behind the Curve, a skeptical but enlightening look inside the flat earth community. Several years ago, Daniel Clark was looking to direct a documentary when he read discussions on Reddit about an increasingly popular topic: whether the Earth was actually flat, and if we were living in a Truman Show-like simulation.

Flat earth society australia theory