Footprints on the Moon (1969 film)


Footprints on the Moon is a 1969 documentary film covering the flight of Apollo 11 from vehicle rollout to splashdown and recovery. It was directed by Bill Gibson and produced by Barry Coe, and is narrated by Wernher von Braun, with Pierre Jalbert doing additional voiceover as Jules Verne. It was edited by John F. Link Jr., who would later be nominated for his editing work on the 1988 film Die Hard. It is largely assembled from a variety of NASA and other news footage, with montage scenes assembled from still images standing in where no motion picture footage exists. The score includes Philip Moody's Laguna Concerto, a short work for piano and orchestra.
Although Footprints on the Moon was the only contemporary theatrically released documentary of Apollo 11, it was almost forgotten for decades, until it was released on DVD in early 2010, missing the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing by less than a year.