More of The Right Stuff: A New Lunar Documentary

British director David Singleton recently completed a new documentary that revisits the personalities behind the Apollo moon landings. In the Shadow of The Moon weaves commentary from all but one of the nine surviving astronauts to set foot on the moon (the holdout was Neil Armstrong, who is notoriously unwilling to grant interviews that rehash his "one small step.").

NASA has decided that HD video technology is mature enough to make the release of newly remastered footage worthwhile, and Singleton has woven some of this rarely-seen film into his documentary. In an April 2007 interview with the CBC, he remarked how the moon landings had momentarily united the planet in a way that is hard to imagine these days:

"One of the most important legacies of Apollo was recognizing just what the planet Earth is. One of the interesting things to me is these guys know that viscerally, not just intellectually. They’ve been there; they’ve seen it with their own eyes. There’s a certain urgency and impatience when you talk to them, that somehow we are not really picking up on that message. [John F.] Kennedy was very important that way, at galvanizing the nation. I hope the film is a reminder that with a political will, and by pulling together, it is possible to solve problems that seem more difficult, but really are not more difficult, than going to the moon. To us, the film is an elegy and a rebuke and an invitation." The film recently won the The World Cinema Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival.

Moonstruck: A new doc celebrates legendary lunar explorers [CBC]

related:
The Scent of Moondust
Souvenirs From The First Moon Landing
Apollo Space Program Commemorative Matchbooks