(NewsNation) — Former Pentagon insider Luis “Lue” Elizondo says the new UFO documentary he executive-produced would not have been possible a decade ago because the topic was too radioactive.

Featuring interviews with dozens of government figures and former officials, “The Age of Disclosure” suggests the U.S. and its adversaries have secretly retrieved nonhuman craft and are in a race to reverse-engineer potentially powerful secrets. Elizondo says it’s only now that people in high places are willing to divulge what may be going on.

“Imagine eight years ago going up to, I don’t know, a former director of national intelligence or a former director of CIA or a former secretary of defense and say(ing), ‘Hey, by the way, we’re doing this little documentary film and we’d like to talk to you on the record about UFOs,’” Elizondo told “CUOMO” on Friday. “They would laugh you right outside of the room, frankly, and probably then tell the security not let you back in. … Times have changed, significantly.”

Elizondo once headed the Pentagon’s Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program and has become known as a whistleblower on the topic of “unidentified anomalous phenomena,” or UAP, the slightly broader term officials prefer today over UFO. He likened the yearslong effort to get the documentary made to “birthing an elephant” because it took time to persuade interview subjects to talk.

“People have to get comfortable with who you are and really trust what it is you’re trying to do,” Elizondo said.

Director Dan Farah said he hopes his film, which opened Friday, forces a public conversation, even if the government refuses to release all information.

“There should be a base level of transparency. What I hope to see happen is for this to become the serious national conversation it deserves to be,” he said.