For All Mankind
DVD cover
Directed by	Al Reinert
Produced by	Betsy Broyles Breier Al Reinert Ben Young Mason Fred Miller
Editing by	Susan Korda
Distributed by	Apollo Associates
Release date(s)	1 November 1989 (United States)
Running time	80 min
Language	English

For All Mankind is a 1989 documentary film documenting the Apollo missions of NASA. It was directed by Al Reinert.

Music for the film was originally composed in 1983 by Brian Eno and released as an album entitled Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks. By the time of the film's release in 1989, some of the album tracks had been replaced by other pieces by Eno and other artists.

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.^[1]

Contents 1 Source material 2 Home theater releases 3 See also 4 References 5 External links

[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commentary, Reinert explains that he made the film after learning that huge amounts of footage shot by astronauts had been archived by NASA without ever being seen by the public. Al Reinert and editor Susan Korda sifted through six million feet of film footage, and 80 hours of NASA interviews to create the documentary.

Reinert also explains that although the documentary purports to show a single moon mission, it is in fact a collage of footage from all six successful Apollo lunar landing missions. Furthermore, some images are presented out of context: the images of rocket stage separation are test footage shot during earlier missions; a shot used to represent Trans Lunar Injection is in fact footage of re-entry; and the images of a spacewalk are from an earlier Gemini mission, not Apollo.

[edit] Home theater releases

For All Mankind has been released by The Criterion Collection on a Region 1 DVD-video disc and on a Blu-ray Disc. The title features a commentary track by director Al Reinert and Eugene A. Cernan, commander of Apollo 17. The Blu-ray Disc version also has behind the scenes footage, explaining the artistic concept and how original NASA footage was being selected for the film.

The title has two subtitle tracks. The first shows the name of a mission and the name of a person shown on the screen. The second subtitle track contains voiceover transcript, specifying the name of the person doing the narration.

[edit] See also

• Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• For All Mankind at the Internet Movie Database
• For All Mankind at Allmovie
• Criterion Collection essay by Al Reinert
• Interview with Al Reinert in The Austin Chronicle

Preceded by Beirut: The Last Home Movie

Sundance Grand Jury Prize: Documentary 1989

Succeeded by H-2 Worker