Earthrise (2018)
Fifty years ago this month, on December 21, 1968, the Apollo 8 crew of Frank Borman, Bill Anders and James Lovell blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center. Their historic voyage is remembered for many things, like being the first human beings to escape the orbit of the earth, the first three people to observe the earth from space, and traveling 240,000 miles to within about sixty miles of the surface of the moon — farther than anyone had ever traveled into space. But beyond their amazing accomplishments of science and engineering, Apollo 8 is really remembered for another first — the first color photograph of the earth. As they orbited the moon, they happened to observe out their small window the little blue marble of our earth rise above the lunar horizon. They quickly snapped a photo, and what later became known as "Earthrise" remains one of the most iconic images ever in all its haunting beauty and mystery. As one of the astronauts observed, "they should have sent the poets," for science alone could never capture what they experienced in that view of our earth, bright blue, with patches of brown and white clouds, and "no boundaries or borders." In this 24-minute New York Times "Op-Doc," the composer and film maker Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee interviews the three astronauts, and stitches together an awe-inspiring visual narrative of that singular moment in human history. To watch the film, click here:
