Introduction
Forty years since the first moon landing, BFI Southbank's One Giant Leap season, opening on Wed 1 July, is an opportunity to share memories of such a momentous event, and views on what it represents for the world.
Was it a great achievement or waste of time and money? Were you there? Do you remember it or did it pass you by? If they could put a man on the moon why couldn't they... ?
This blog is a chance for you to share your thoughts on the subject – and if you can come along to any of the events and screenings at the BFI Southbank, please share your experiences here.
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I have to admit to feeling a little embarrassed to be making an appearance on this blog so late in the day. With my colleague Rhidian Davis, I was one of the people who helped to realise the One Giant Leap season, after it was proposed to us by Paul Bonnaventura. I had originally intended to contribute to this blog on a regular basis, but a busy month and general pace of life at the BFI and in London got the better of me.
One Giant Leap has been an extraordinary season for BFI Southbank in a number of ways. Its unusual for us to mount a season on such a scale sround a thematic subject (in contrast to the work of a particular director / artist), and even rarer for it to be so overtly tied to something that is a current affair. Its also slightly unusual to have a season that presents such an opportunity to include a wealth of both fiction and documentary, it was quite difficult to settle upon the final list of titles and events.
The fact that the documentaries have outperformed the fiction features in terms of audience confirms for me what I felt at the beginning when Paul first proposed the project to us. It felt like the 40th anniversary was an opportunity to really learn something about this incredible event that for a brief moment seemed to transcend prosaic life on a global scale. Personally, I had always had an interest in space, and I am a big fan of sci fi, but I had never really invested a great deal of time in learning about the moon landing, the social and cultural context behind it, or indeed what it meant to people at the time, or indeed to us all today.
My own instinct was to go for the documentaries, and I'm not sure I can fully explain why, but I think its along the lines of the above, I wanted to learn about the events of 1969 and preceeding space race and understand more about the cold war context, and the science involved. Having seen and really enjoyed many of the films, I think one of the most striking things was this cannon of documentaries - Moonwalk One, For All Mankind, In The Shadow of the Moon, and the brand new Music for Astronauts and Cosmonauts. Those four films for me were the highlights, and I would recommend to anyone to try and see them. All are made with a distinctive style, and all manage to convey the enormity of what Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins and the NASA teams achieved and experienced. All of those films have amazing soundtracks as well, something that I think helps us to make an emotional connection with those images of astronauts hundreds of thousands of miles away in space.
In a couple of weekends, I'm taking those films to the Big Chill music festival, as part of the programme that I put together for them, and I'm really looking forward to seeing how the audiences there respond.
I should also mention Duncan Jones' 'Moon', as another highlight, I thought that was a stunning feature debut and he was a great on stage guest who was very open in responding to questions from the audience, and his passion for science fiction and film making have clearly inspired him to create something special. I can't believe he made that film for $5 million. Its a fantastic achievement. (thanks to Sony Pictures for helping us to make that event happen).
I've really enjoyed being involved with One Giant Leap, its been a pleasure to work on throughout. Everyone from the on stage guests to those behind the scenes were all very enthusiastic and excited by what we were doing. Watching the films and thinking about the moon landing has been strangely meditative - its something that naturally puts ones own minor worries into context. Also being part of something that has really caught the wider public imagination has been fun, I've been able to impress my 7 year old with my apparent encyclopedic knowledge of the Apollo missions!
I've now started to read Andrew Smith's book 'Moondust', and I think I will have a much keener interest in future space flight programmes as a result of learning about 1969 through One Giant Leap. And that for me is what its really about, entertaining audiences and encouraging people to learn more and go on their own journeys through cinema.
Stuart Brown, Head of Events, BFI Southbank
Having a deep interest in the American space programme of the '60s and early '70s, I was pleased to see the BFI marking this anniversary so comprehensively. Originally, I drew up a shortlist of about a dozen films that I really wanted to see. Unfortunately, living about 10 miles west of Oxford would have meant that to see them all would have been quite costly and time consuming! In the end, I came to see four films.
"Moonwalk One" was enjoyable, although I thought that the film focussed too much on seeing the event in context. I thought that its exploration of man's limitations, his part in the universe, Stonehenge and so on was a considerable digression from the event itself. Was this really a suitable response to NASA's request to document the event definitively?
"In the Shadow of the Moon" was still enjoyable, even though I've seen it several times at the cinema already and own the DVD. I love this film.
"For All Mankind" was also superb. It was nice to hear a fair bit of James Irwin, who doesn't often appear in such documentaries. Unfortunately, owning a copy of Brian Eno's soundtrack, I was looking forward to hearing that as well, but there didn't seem to be that much of this used in the film.
"The Daring Adventure of Apollo 8" was a bit of a surprise for me. I only bought a ticket for this because I happened to be viewing the preceding film as well. I didn't expect to learn much more about this mission than I already knew. However, the film included much that I hadn't heard or seen before.
The films introduced much content that was new to me, which I found fascinating, and it was so nice to view them without having to sit through trailers and adverts, and with well-behaved audiences! Thank you for commemorating this anniversary.
Ed Heel (born July '69!)
The Celebratory BFI Giant Leap events have,on the whole,been successful.
A particular hightlight in the panel discuussion strand was the event "Was the Moon Landing Faked?" Drs Wessely and Miodownik skilfully fielded questions and statements from the floor which featured the inevitable conspiracists presenting themselves as film makers etc.
The session was well moderated and chaired.
The same, sadly, could not be said for Kubrick's Moon, which turned out to be litle more than a glorified PR puff for Branson's Space Programme, albeit well presented.
The subsequent discussion was an unhappy affair with no real attempt at moderating or chairing.
Some of the participants seemed unhappy, whilst others gave the strong impression of being self-absorbed. One in particular, was too laid back or lazy to use the microphone thoughtfully provided by the AV department.
Little, if anything could possibly have been gleaned from him by the audience.
Indeed, that there was an audience present at all, was a fact that seemed to escape the distinguished panel.
Needless to add, this excercise in self indulgence did not broaden into the customary BFI Q&A.
Onward and upward.
Mark Lipniacki BFI member
I have no recollection of the Apollo 11 landing live, as I had been packed off to bed (it was a school day in the morning) and it seemed as if every other 7 year old kid in school had seen it as it happened except for me - of course, in those days and of that age, you thought all your schoolmates were telling the truth when they said they had... I do, however, remember racing home from school to see the launch of Apollo 7; and especially Apollo 8, sitting on grandad's knee hearing Borman, Lovell and Anders read from Genesis on Christmas Eve 1968.
I think I have earned my 'space nut' wings now, having been to everything in this season, even if I've seen it who knows how many times, got the DVD, whatever - including passing up a glorious summer Saturday to see six hours of "From the Earth To The Moon" !. Highlights so far? Duncan Jones and the 'Moon' Q&A; and the pleasing surprise that was 'Moonshot'
I remember the landing or rather misremember it. Was I awakened to see it, or watched it as if it was live before I went to school? Whichever it was a true experience was always going to be hard to define for what was necessarily the most mediated moment in human history. As far as the landing goes we only have Buzz Aldrin’s word for it, as Neil Armstrong isn’t speaking. No wonder it has spawned so many conspiracy theories.
It was also humankind’s most remote experience. I used to like the Guinness Book of Records entry describing Michael Collins as the world’s most isolated human being, orbiting the moon alone (like John from Thunderbirds). Mark Wallinger
I fear that Richard Stroud should speak for himself in asking can 'we' afford to go to the Moon, ;we' are unable to feed the world, 'we' wreck the environment. I thought that business and governments had most of the money and power in the world. I also thought that it was them, not just, who were obsessed with costs vs benefits.
As the Financial Times film critic Nigel Andrews made clear in a a recent article, the Moon has been a great source of inspiration to film directors over the years – and, I might add, to writers, and to children, too. The Moon, going to it, being on it and going round the Dark Side have each stimulated the human imagination. You can't quantify goose-pimples, and even a great Moon movie can't quite compare with the sensation of seeing the Moon's craters, mountains and shadows through a high-powered telescope, watching the image skate across the screen as the Earth turns under your feet.....
Let's go back! For more on why, and changing views on the Apollo programme, see my 29 June article 'Let's go back to the Moon – and beyond', on www.Woudhuysen.com
I watched Moonshot at BFI Southbank on Friday night and stayed for the Q&A with Richard Dale, Dan Parry and Chris Lintott. Moonshot is a drama-documentary on the moonlanding, being broadcast on ITV, and it's definitely recommended viewing. But I really enjoyed the Q&A. Richard Dale, the film's executive producer and director, was inspiring in his enthusiasm for the event - pointing out what a stunning achievement it was, not just for Americans but for all humankind - it just goes to show what can be done with the power of the vision - imagining the 'impossible' and making it possible! And Dan Parry seemed to know everything that could be known about the subject! Brilliant!
Wendy
The next round of lunar exploration is going to be very exciting, but it has its moral challenges. The US and the USSR spent a lot of money getting to the moon - each pound of moonrock came in at $160,million dollars. We are now proposing to go back to the moon to develop its potential as a scientific platform, a way station for deep space exploration and a mineral resource. Among other things the moon is a source of Helium 3, a miracle fuel reckoned to be worth $4billion dollars a tonne. 40 tonnes of Helium 3 could power the earth for a year. Helium three is found in the regolith, the dust that covers the moon. A million tonnes of regolith has to be heated to 800 degrees centigrade to get one tonne Helium 3. This will destroy the moon's vacuum environment and slowly erode the surface - which is a pristine record of 5 billion years of the history of the universe. Exploring the moon may bring great benefits to mankind. But can we afford it? We don't seem to be able to feed the world or even get clean water to everybody on the planet. Perhaps going to the moon is just displacement acitivity to avoid our terrestrial responsibilities. We are good at wrecking our own environment - are we now about to turn the moon into the next rain forest? Rick Stroud, Author: The Book of the Moon.
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