Co-written, produced, and directed by David Dodson and Mark Dodson, The Landing is a tricky documentary because the filmmakers are not openly saying if this is true or fabricated about the tragic Apollo 18 mission.
The documentary stars Don Hannah as Bo Cunningham; Warren Farina as Ed Lovett; Jeff McVey as Al Borden; Cindy Lou Adkins as Kate Borden; Page Hannah as Sandy Cunningham-Bates; Arlene Hughes-Martinez as Joan Lovett; Robert Pine as congressional representative Pete Pellarin; Craig Stepp as Mike Russo; and Joe Santaniello as Fred Calder.
The Landing focuses on today’s fake news environment and demonstrates how easy it is to fool the world. Watch the trailer, which is not straightforward; you will see how the movie seems natural but is a lesson on fake news propaganda.
It was an exciting time in NASA’s Apollo missions. In 1973, the United States operated space program experienced an extraordinary tragedy, an event that, despite its place as one of the most disturbing episodes of the “space race,” was nevertheless all but ignored during the emerging Watergate scandal that ultimately claimed the presidency of President Richard M. Nixon.
Returning from a successful lunar landing mission, NASA’s Apollo 18 suffered a computer error that forced command module pilot Bo Cunningham to take the controls and fly the spacecraft to an emergency landing in the remote Taklamakan Desert of western China, far from the intended splashdown target in the Pacific Ocean. Thirty-six hours would pass before NASA located the spacecraft, the site of a national tragedy. What happened during the astronauts’ time in the desert, the inquiry that followed, and the mystery surrounding the event, is the subject of The Landing.
“Presented as a documentary, our movie demonstrates how unsettlingly easy it is to reshape people’s memories,” said the LANDING co-writer and co-directors David Dodson and Mark Dodson, who explained that many viewers of the award-winning film were convinced it was a real documentary regarding actual historical events when it appeared at film festival screenings. “It’s one of the abiding themes of the project and particularly germane in today’s cultural and political climate amidst the whole ‘fake news’ and ‘alternative facts’ lunacy.”
The Landing won awards while on the festival circuit. Best Director at the 2017 Boston Sci Film Festival – Best Thriller at the 2017 Burbank International Film Festival – Best Feature at 2017 Escape Velocity, Washington, D.C.