A Small Step and a Giant Leap: Apollo 11 and the True/False Film Festival
Despite being a Columbia native, before 2019, I had never once attended the True/False Film Festival in its entire 15 year history. The bitter cold and snowfall prevented me from spending much time around the festival, but the relatively small amount of exposure I received left a lasting impression on me.
On a dark and chilly Sunday night, I took my sister and myself to see Apollo 11 in Jesse Auditorium, expecting something great. The line was dense and large, nearly spilling outside the lobby of Jesse Hall; all involved were grateful when the line began to move about 20 minutes before show time.
A Philadelphia band called Square Peg Round Hole provided the pre-movie entertainment in the form of emotional, instrumental music. With a few minutes until ‘start’ and then bleeding well over that mark, the staff of the festival put on a sort of farewell ceremony to close out the festival, as the movie was late on the final night of the 2019 iteration. The entire staff of the Ragtag Film Society was brought on stage and several members were given special recognition for their efforts.
Once the stage cleared, the movie began. As I said before, I expected something great, but what I got was far above and beyond those expectations. Merely seconds into the film, I could tell I was in for something truly special.
The film gave a new perspective and understanding to the vast task that NASA undertook with the Apollo program. There was no narration made for the film; the newscasters and presenters of the time provided the context and the information needed surrounding the launch. The vast majority of the audio was the communications to and from the astronauts, an artistic decision that humanized the film greatly. As Vox pointed out, even those who have seen and experienced the Apollo 11 story before, this film was “stunning”.
The scale of the operation was surprising, to say the least. It is easy to not fully appreciate the distance between the Earth and the Moon, nor the time needed to travel between them, even at incredible speeds; from liftoff to splashdown was over eight days.
Multiple times during the film, I found myself stunned by some of the shots. Nearly every shot had obviously been digitally touched up and refined, but the contents were what was truly, literally, awesome. Specifically, I recall covering my mouth with my hand as the shuttle launched, which was partially due to the spectacular shot, but also partially due to the energy and atmosphere that had been built.
As the previous Apollo missions were tests and rehearsals for the scientists and astronauts, so too were they rehearsals for the filmmakers and photographers. As a review of the film from the New York Times noted, it is due to their hard work that we have the footage that we do.
The amount of footage that the filmmakers had to pour through was truly monumental. They found unique footage never seen or heard before, and so much in archives that, as a Space.com interview discovered, “they had no idea how much they actually had.”
Despite having no external narration and very little overlaid text, Apollo 11 successfully brings the viewers into the film and fully immerses them. The feelings surrounding the launch: the excitement, the trepidation, the pride, the fear, it was all incredibly genuine. Despite knowing the outcome, you couldn't help but get swallowed up by the movie.
From the preparation, to the launch, to the 4+ day journey to the Moon, to the landing, the liftoff, the descent back to Earth and everything in between, the film impresses upon you the, pardon the pun, gravity of the situation. At more than one point during the mission, the astronauts had to perform a perilous, precise maneuver, such as disconnecting half of their craft and spinning it around 180 degrees and reattaching the module to the craft. If any of the maneuvers failed, or any of the equipment broke, or any of their calculations off, the mission would have failed and the astronauts would almost certainly have died. One only has to look at the iconic Apollo 13 disaster to see the stakes of these missions.
As David Ehrlich of IndieWire.com put it, “The clarity takes your breath away, and it does so in the blink of an eye; your body will react to it before your brain has time to process why, after a lifetime of casual interest, you’re suddenly overcome by the sheer enormity of what it meant to leave the Earth and land somewhere else.”
To put the stress the astronauts were feeling into perspective, NASA was tracking the vitals of the crew, including their heart rates. When the Eagle module disconnected and began its descent down to the Moon, carrying Aldrin and Armstrong, the latter’s heart rate was around 110 bpm, and after the landing, which was shown in real-time, Armstrong’s heart was pumping at over 150 bpm.
The astronauts were spectacularly isolated, further from home than any human had ever been before; the only thing tethering them back home being Earth’s gravity and their wireless communications. While Armstrong and Aldrin were on the Moon’s surface, Collins was entirely alone on the Columbia. A newscaster compared him to Adam, as no man since had experienced such isolation that Michael Collins was experiencing.
Such a statement earned a round of laughter from the audience, and it wasn’t the first, nor last to do so. It was a profoundly human experience, seeing the stress and worry partnered with humor. Some of the due to nerves, some were made from boredom, and some were the product of relief and joy. Despite the tension, when Buzz Aldrin followed Armstrong onto the lunar surface, he quipped that he made sure not to lock the lunar module door behind him.
After a precarious launch and reconnection with the Columbia module, the three astronauts reunited and began their fall back down to Earth. The return trip and landing was glossed over much more than the first part of the film, focusing mostly on the nerve-wracking ‘blackout’ between the crew and NASA during their reentry into the atmosphere.
Upon landing, the film ended with a montage of the events following the mission, including a two-week quarantine to ensure that the crew hadn’t brought back any lunar microorganisms. There were parades, speeches, awards, dinners and more showered upon the three astronauts.
The media surrounding the event, not just at the end, was truly astounding. There were thousands of spectators and dozens of news teams at the launch, and the mission was the top story every night. There were even live television broadcasts from space, including a personal call from President Nixon.
The statements from NASA and the astronauts had a message: one of progress and unity. As Armstrong stood on the lunar surface and spoke to the president and, by extension, the world, saying that they were “representing not only the United States, but men of peace of all nations, and with interest and curiosity, and men with a vision for the future.”
As the film concluded, I felt a swell of patriotism and pride, which the movie was certainly trying to convey. The trailer boldly declares “witness the last time we were one” as a rallying cry to the whole nation. The entire film is a beautiful statement which says ‘look what we can do when we work together’. Entertainment Weekly put it well, that the film is “ a reminder we could all use about how much we’re capable of as a species.”
As a first experience at True/False, I have to say I was rather impressed. Even though my exposure was limited, I felt like I got a fairly good taste. While I was certainly expecting the stereotypical snooty film festival attendees, I didn’t find that to be the case. People from all walks of life were waiting to see this film, too many to enumerate or describe with any semblance of justice.
Outside of Jesse Hall, I am in the unique position to have an intimate familiarity with one of the venues, ‘The Globe’, also known as First Presbyterian Church. I have been a lifelong member of FPC Columbia, and have experienced the festival secondhand for years. We’ve had the large map of the world on the walls of our Fellowship Center for the better part of a decade at this point, and have worked intimately with the passionate staff and volunteers of the festival.
Much like the film itself, the True/False film festival left a lasting impression on me from a short experience. From the passion and excitement that buzzed around the room, to art installations and music that decorated and enhanced the atmosphere and lastly to the films themselves, I think it’s safe to say that I will be returning to the festival in future years.
