Completely devoid of the interviews and narration that are the hallmarks of most documentaries, director Todd Douglas Miller‘s innovative 2018 effort Apollo 11 tells the story of the history-making mission solely throughnever-before-made-public 65mm and 70mm National Archives footage. What follows is a fly-on-the-wall overview of one of mankind’s greatest achievements. Is it hyperbole to say that this movie is as much of a “giant leap for mankind” for documentary filmmaking as its source material was for science? Well yes, almost certainly. But that doesn’t mean that its immersive, you-are-there immediacy is any less powerful.
What Apollo 11 does brilliantly is allow you to feel like you are part of the mission alongside of Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins. It’s not quite as great as going into space ourselves, but for those of us mere mortal who remain Earthbound, taking flight aboard this Apollo 11 documentary rich with innovation is the next best thing.