Keswick Film Festival

Synopsis

The nostalgic, bittersweet tone of this acclaimed documentary about the Apollo space program reminds viewers that even at its most destructive, humankind is capable of feats of breathtaking splendour.

The film brings together for the first time crew members of each of the nine U.S. spacecraft that voyaged to the moon between 1968 and 1972, as the Vietnam War raged a quarter of a million miles away on Earth. Alan Bean, Apollo 12 lunar module pilot, recalled "Human beings can do amazing things if they get together and put their egos aside."

Shadow features familiar images from the Apollo era, including the famed "Earth rise" photo taken from Apollo 8 and footage of Neil Armstrong stepping onto the lunar surface, but also weaves in never-seen archival footage the filmmakers found in extensive searches through NASA's film library.

Moreover, the documentary marries, also for the first time, silent 16mm films of Mission Control during the Apollo flights with recordings of the controllers' voices.