Looking for an entertaining and enlightening cinematic experience? Look no further than In the Shadow of the Moon, a documentary featuring first-hand accounts of each of the Apollo lunar missions from the astronauts who took part in these monumental space flights. For our local blog readers, note that the film will continue its run at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln’s Ross Media Arts Center through this Thursday, November 8th. For more information, including show times, visit the Ross Center Web site at http://theross.org/.

The film has been compared favorably to its literary counterpart, In the Shadow of the Moon: A Challenging Journey to Tranquility, 1965-1969 by Francis French and Colin Burgess (University of Nebraska Press, 2007). In the Shadow of the Moon tells the story of the most exciting and challenging years in spaceflight, when two superpowers engaged in a titanic struggle to land one of their own people on the moon. Much like the film, the book focuses not only on the scientific and political implications of the missions, but also on the personalities and experiences of the participating astronauts—the select few whose driving ambition was to fly to the moon.         

Whether you’d rather spend a night out at the movies or a night in curled up with a good book, you can’t go wrong with In the Shadow of the Moon. Whichever you choose, buckle up and prepare yourself for a rollicking ride through space!