True/False Film Fest: Apollo 11
I went on Saturday afternoon to see the documentary Apollo 11. I was with my mom and we chose to see this film very randomly, having just stumbled across some place warm to stand in, as we decided what to use my student passes on. The film did not sound over all super inviting or that it could be very exciting, so we just decided to wing it and to see it anyways. I grew up in Texas, and so did my parents, so we all can had our fair share of going to see the NASA space center in Houston. We both said it would be a cool movie to see anyways.
The movie itself was amazing! I was completely blown away by how this team of filmmakers were able to tell the story of something we all know of with only using archival footage, and have the film still be incredibly interesting, inviting, and impressive to watch. In the Q&A afterwords, the director told us that the film will be shown in IMAX theaters for one week right before Captain Marvel releases (which is March 8th). This is 100% a film I would see again only to see it in IMAX. The soundtrack is amazing and adds to the suspense one is feeling throughout the whole film. I highly recommend at least watching the trailer.
What was great about this movie is that none of what is shown is new footage. Everything is archival 70 mm footage that hadn’t been released to the public before. Part of why this movie was breathtaking was because it showed the people during/before/after the launch of Apollo 11 and not just mission control or the astronauts. The audience really gets an understanding of what the time period was like (the 1960’s), what people were wearing, how everyone was acting. The film showed many different clips of how people were camping out over night outside the launch site in Florida just to get a glimpse of the take off.
As I stated in class, I had watched the film BlackKkKlansman the night before, and both movies were set in 1969. This really showed me that two movements can be happening at the same time. As the Civil Rights movement was at its peak, the same nation put two men on the moon. It was really eye-opening to see just how much can happen in one year. While the nation was celebrating one thing, it was also fighting another.
The film itself was amazing a lot in part of how they delivered the sound. After all Apollo 11 is something that we as an audience know the ending to, don’t we? So how does one make a two hour movie about something we already know suspenseful and engaging? The answer is in the sound. “Using music itself to create tension, using the sound of a quickening heartbeat to quicken viewers’ heartbeats, or even the artistic use of silence to leave the audience in wonder and anticipation” is what sound does for an audience. One could argue it make or breaks most films.
Overall I really enjoyed this film and the festival itself. Although the weather made it quite cold it was something I really enjoyed showing off to my mom and would be something I attend again, even after I graduate in May. I would recommend this film for everyone to go see so that they can see the magic of (raw and real) space travel too.
