“Apollo 11” (G) ****

AS I write this review, the National Film and Sound Archive is memorialising the 50th anniversary of the moon landing by screening the three hours of film of the landing that NASA gave to thank CSIRO in recognition of Australia’s crucial role at Honeysuckle Creek near Tidbinbilla in receiving the signals from the mission. 

That film, now in the NFSA’s permanent collection, is the only copy of that landing footage held outside the US. 

While “Apollo 11” is Todd Douglas Miller’s distillation of all the known audio and visual records of the moon landing is not that longer film, it nonetheless delivers a powerful reminiscence of an event that held the world’s attention half a century ago. 

It’s also a tribute to Miller’s perseverance in the editing suite, rendering an event involving many hundreds of NASA staff at Cape Canaveral and Houston into an easily digestible entertainment. It’s beautiful. It’s exciting. As well as contemporary records which have often enough been shown, it’s packed with hitherto unpublished information added during the compilation of its 93 minutes and an unobtrusive musical score. 

At Dendy, Palace Electric, Hoyts Belconnen and Capitol 6