Apollo 11

With the 50th anniversary of the most momentous journey ever undertaken looming, director Todd Douglas Miller decided the timing for a documentary on the subject couldn’t be better. What he and American archivists weren’t expecting was to stumble upon a cache of unprocessed 65mm footage of Apollo 11’s launch, as well as more than 11,000 hours of uncatalogued audio recordings.

The resulting film contains no narration and little in the form of interviews. Instead, we are immersed into the tense atmosphere as the crew and Mission Control navigate each and every critical step of the perilous journey, as well as being exposed to the media millions experienced in July 1969, and footage of the fascinated crowds.

Science fiction is great fun, but this science fact makes your heart beat faster and your breath shallow, knowing that what you are seeing really took place. How on earth did they manage it?

★★★

Reviewed by Craig Coventry