This July the 40th anniversary of the Apollo moon landings on 20 July 1969 will be remembered by people across the world. This year will also mark the 400 years since the invention of the telescope and happens to be the International Year of Astronomy. To celebrate these cosmic events BFI Southbank is collaborating with the Science Museum in presenting One Giant Leap, a season of documentaries, feature films, television and artworks focusing on the dream and reality of space travel, the Cold War space race and the American space programme of the 1960s and 1970s. One Giant Leap will look at how factual and fictive approaches to making films have articulated humankind’s aspiration to colonise space, and investigate how our desire and ability to break free of the earth’s gravitational field have stimulated some of the most creative thinkers from the worlds of cinema, television and the visual arts.

 

Speaking to Congress on 25 May 1961, President John F Kennedy challenged the United States of America to put a man on the moon and return him safely to earth by the end of the decade. Eight years and 26 days later, the lunar module Eagle touched down on the Sea of Tranquility and Apollo 11’s commander Neil Armstrong stepped on to the lunar surface exclaiming, ‘That’s one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind’.

 

Hundreds of millions of people were watching on television as Armstrong became the first person to step onto another world. The moon landing attracted arguably the biggest live audience in history, and news coverage from around the world indicated that it was seen as a triumph not just for the Americans, but also for all humanity. Wherever he went afterwards, Apollo 11’s command module pilot Michael Collins noted that, ‘People said we did it, we the human race, we – people – did it,’ and contemporaneous television broadcasts reflect on a technological and logistical feat that seemed to ignore national borders and the competing political ideologies of the day.

 

Yet the fact remains that barely 500 people have been into space and only 12 individuals have ever set foot on the moon. Although this number is sure to increase in the near future, especially with the advent of space tourism, the rest of us have had to be content with a mediated experience. Collectively, our comprehension of space flight in general and the moon landings in particular is inextricably linked to the moving image.

 

To complement the Science Museum’s Centenary celebrations, the BFI Southbank will host a number of screenings and events that will appeal to everyone, from Kubrick’s seminal 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), For All Mankind (1989) with a score by Brian Eno, and an exclusive preview of Moon (2009) plus a live interview with it’s directorDuncan Jones, to classic Doctor Who (1967) and Space: 1999 (1975). There will also be free screenings in the Studio, exhibitions in the Gallery and in the Atrium, a Lunacy Weekender(Friday 17 – Sunday 19 July) and an out of this world Film Funday.

 

Moon is an assured debut feature from Jones, who has previously made an impact with work for advertising and music promos. Moon is a philosophical and ultimately touching film in which Jones and writer Nathan Parker create an insightful character piece about memory and identity. We are delighted to welcome Duncan Jones to the BFI Southbank stage to take part in a post-screening Q&A.

UK 2009 Dir Duncan Jones With Sam Rockwell 97min

Wed 8 July 18:30 NFT1Tickets £12.90, concs £9.65 (Members pay £1.40 less)

The idea of travelling to the moon didn’t start in the 19th century, but it received a powerful boost from Jules Verne’s popular tale about an American gun club’s project to build a giant cannon. Film historian and Verne enthusiast Ian Christie scans the skies for Apollo 11’s earliest forerunners in this illustrated tour, culminating in Méliès’ recently restored landmark 1902 film, Le Voyage dans la Lune.

 

Méliès’ magical trip to the moon in 1902 had a profound influence on an international community of film pioneers. BFI National Archive curator Bryony Dixon conjures a dazzling programme of early film’s greatest tricks including work by Georges Méliès, Émile Cohl, RW Paul and Walter Booth, Ladislaw Starewicz and Segundo de Chomón.

Joint ticket available with Trips to the Moon £12.90, concs £9.65 (Members pay £1.40 less)

 

Smoking Moon is an uncanny representation of the moon; comical yet unsettling, it demonstrates David Austen’s exploration of the darker side of the human psyche and the displacement of the moon from reality to myth. This work is Austen’s first moving image piece, an example of the artist’s distinct use of fragmented narrative.

UK 2006 Dir David Austen 13min

 

Untitled (The Remake) combines archival footage from the years of the 1967-1973 military dictatorship in Greece with Tsivopoulos’ own video footage. For this work, the artist reconstructed a late-60s TV studio, complete with period technical equipment.

2007 Dir Stefanos Tsivopoulos 14min

 

A fine new TV docu-fiction, Moonshot interweaves cinematic drama with hi-definition NASA footage in presenting glimpses of life behind the scenes in Houston alongside edge-of- your-seat moments in space. We welcome Richard Dale, head of research Dan Parry and (hopefully) cast members for a Q&A.

Dangerous Films for ITV 2009 Dir Richard Dale With Daniel Lapaine, James Marsters, Andrew Lincoln 69min

 

To accompany our One Giant Leap season we are showing Untitled (Apollo-Soyuz Test Project), 2003, by visual artist Stefan Gec. This work focuses on the extraordinary moment in Cold War history when in July 1975 two spacecraft, Apollo (US) and Soyuz (USSR) docked in space for the first ever collaborative mission.

Dark Fibre is the BFI’s brand new club event that will peer into the darker corners of live cinema and audiovisual performance, and all points between. Hosted in partnership with the people behind London’s AV Social, Dark Fibre’s first edition will be suitably Lunar. Headlined by a rare UK performance by Hamburg collective Incite, the lineup is completed with Secret Films, Blinkin Lab, a surprise film remix collaboration between Dan Tait and Oli Sorenson, as well as exclusive screen works by Semiconductor.

 

In 1961 John F Kennedy gave NASA until the end of the decade to land a man on the moon. Join the discussion, led by esteemed King’s College academics Dr Mark Miodownik, Head of the KCL Materials Research Group and Prof Simon Wessely of the KCL Institute of Psychiatry, could it be that this impossible mission was faked for television?

Sat 18 July 13:00 NFT1 Tickets £5

 

As part of his meticulous research for 2001: A Space Odyssey, Stanley Kubrick interviewed 21 of the world’s great scientific minds, asking them to speculate on the future and man’s place in the cosmos. Will Whitehorn, President of Virgin Galactic, explores Kubrick’s designs for space travel, then joins discussion with Tony Frewin, Kubrick’s long-time assistant , Chris Riley, producer of In the Shadow of the Moon, and writer Simon Ings.

Sat 18 July 15:15 NFT1Tickets £5

The race to the moon was always conceived as a televisual spectacle, but the Apollo astronauts were uncomfortable starring in the first reality TV show in space. Launching his new book, Live From the Moon: Film, Television and the Space Race, Mike Allen explores the complex interactions between

developing space travel and media technologies as an extended introduction to American Experience:

Race to the Moon. A book signing follows in the Filmstore.

 

We are delighted to premiere this newly remastered Director’s Cut in high definition. Theo Kamecke’s vision for the film – commissioned by NASA to cover their historic Apollo 11 moonshot – was to create something which would mark the historic, philosophical and epic nature of this greatest of endeavours. We hope to welcome the director for a post-screening Q&A.

USA 1970 Dir Theo Kamecke 110min.

 

These three films, made within two years of the Apollo 11 landing by artists who were pioneers in the

development of conceptual art in Britain, capture a contemporary fascination on the part of artists

and public alike with the events and imagery of space exploration. A satellite event of the exhibition ‘Earth-Moon-Earth’ (Djanogly Gallery, University of Nottingham, 20 June – 9 August), presented in collaboration with Flat Time House, John Latham’s home in Peckham, the films are introduced by the exhibition’s curators, Nicholas Alfrey and Joy Sleeman.

Sun 19 July 18:10 NFT2Tickets £5

 

Man’s tragic longing to escape from the pull of gravity is explored by Simon Faithfull in this multi-screen performance lecture. The artist, whose work is featured in the Gallery this month, takes to the skies with a montage of madcap flying machines, scientific theories and existential longing.

Sun 19 July 16:00 NFT2Tickets £5

 

The Future Film Institute is an organisation of young people at the BFI dedicated to bringing film

screenings and events to a young audience. Legend has it that the new moon can make people go a bit crazy, so this month we’ve picked a suitably nutty crop of films and TV containing spectacular space voyages, mad machines, bonkers brainwaves and loony tunes. For just a fiver you can witness the spectacle of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey in a glorious 70mm print (see p37), travel by TARDIS to Dr Who: The Moonbase (see p42), and board our Flights of the Imagination (see p10). Not mental enough for you? Then come and join our flashmob as we howl at the full moon on Tue 7 July or check out our Future Film Mediatheque collection where you can watch more weird and wonderful titles from the BFI Archive.

Full Moon Flashmob – Tue 7 July 21:30 meet outside The Riverfront