Movie of the Month: "For All Mankind"

One might assume that by its very nature a documentary should adhere to a strict sense of factuality: that is to say….it should be rigorously accurate. Otherwise, what's the point? The beauty of non-fiction is that you know it's not fictional. You know it to be true, making it all the more astounding.

But Al Reinert’s seminal docu-fantasia quite literally occupies a world in between.

Splicing footage from both the Gemini and Apollo space programs—utilizing approximately 6 million feet of raw film plus 80 hours worth of primary interviews—Reinert shaves the experience of space travel down to a lean 80-minute trajectory: terra to luna then back again.