David Wolper and Cinema 5 got audiences into theatres to see this documentary by promoting it as if it were a science fiction thriller.
This film was released on a double-bill with the original "Willy Wonka" movie (also a Wolper production) in the summer of 1971.
Won the Academy Award in 1971 for best documentary. This is a powerful movie, although much of it doesn't bear close scrutiny, and a lot of it is fiction, including the name of the narrator who is not this fictional doctor scientist Nills Hellstrom he calls himself. It's actually Lawrence Pressman, a well-known character actor in the 70s and 80s who appeared in movies like 9 to 5 opposite Jane Fonda. He was also frequently a villainous character in TV shows like MASH, One Day At A Time and The Practice. Pressman got his name starring in this hoax movie pretending to be mad scientist, which was so effective it won the Academy Award, as mentioned earlier.
The film is mentioned in Judith Guest's novel, Ordinary People.