For All Mankind

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For All Mankind
DVD cover
Directed by	Al Reinert
Produced by	Betsy Broyles Breier Al Reinert
Distributed by	Apollo Associates
Release date(s)	1 November 1989
Running time	80 min.
Language	English
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For All Mankind is a 1989 documentary film documenting the Apollo missions of NASA. It was directed by Al Reinert.

The film provides 80 minutes of real NASA footage, taken on the Apollo missions of the 1960s and 1970s. The focus of the documentary is on the human views of the space flights, and the original mission footage is provided along with the voices of the astronauts, from interviews and from the actual mission recordings. Among those providing narration are Jim Lovell, Michael Collins, Charles Conrad, Jack Swigert, and Ken Mattingly.

For All Mankind was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary in 1990.

[edit] Source material

In the DVD commentary, Reinert explains that he made the film after learning that huge amounts of footage shot by astronauts had been archived by NASA without ever being seen by the public.

Reinert also explains that although the documentary purports to show a single moon mission, it is in fact a collage of images from all six missions. Furthermore, images are often presented out of context: the images of rocket stage separation are test footage shot during earlier missions; a shot used to represent lunar orbit injection is in fact footage of re-entry. Furthermore, the images of a spacewalk are from a Gemini mission, since Apollo missions did not involve spacewalks.

[edit] DVD availability

At present, For All Mankind is available on DVD only as a Region 1 disc released by The Criterion Collection. The disc features a commentary track by director Al Reinert and Eugene A. Cernan, commander of Apollo 17.