In our second set of interviews from “The Last Man on the Moon” DC premiere. We talked to director Mark Craig.
How are you today?
I am very well, thank you. Good to be here.
Especially since you mentioned a moment ago that you were used to being behind the camera instead of in front of the camera.
(Laughs) I’m used to normally being behind the camera but hey, it’s a nice change for me.
Absolutely, so my first question is what led you to do a documentary on Captain Cernan
I was a child of the sixties. So, I remember as a kid, you know, men going to the moon and into space. It made a huge impression on me. I guess many years later, a whole slate of great astronaut autobiographies had come out and I began reading them. Gene’s book just completely blew me away. As a filmmaker, I just thought, “Ooooh, this would make a fantastic documentary. I’m going to have to just contact him and see if I could persuade him.
What are some of the things that you learned while making the documentary about Cernan or Apollo in general?
Apollo in general, well I got to meet so many colleagues who were with him at the time on their respective missions. It was just fantastic really to take names that were in history books and bring them alive for an audience of real people that was the big thing. Just to get to know the man, really deeply under his skin.
What I learned about Gene, he’s an incredible complex mix of so many personality types I think. He’s humble but he’s very assertive. He’s kind of emotional but then he can be tough and hopefully we captured all of those aspects of his character in the film.
I understand that this took five years to make.
And the rest.
And the rest, yes. Why did it take so long t make this documentary?
I guess because he wasn’t in a hurry to open up his doors and let some strangers from England and reveal his personal life. So, I sent the first email to him in June 2006. I then met up with him in London during a space conference a few months later. The second time I met him, I came to DC here actually when he was receiving the Wright Brothers Memorial Trophy in December 2007. And only, when I came back from that and teamed up with my colleague Mark Stewart, did the project really begin to gain some momentum and start looking like it might happen.
Now, we talked to Eugene Cernan earlier and he said that its more like a story about a boy from Chicago who just happen to become an astronaut and happened to be the last man on the Moon. What is the overall message that you hope fans would take away from this film even if they have never heard of Apollo before?
I think the message of the film is that if you really want something and you can get together with a bunch of people who all working together to achieve that goal, whatever it maybe, we all got our own moon. Then, I think it could be possible and that’s what I loved to see happen again. I love to see us, mankind, go back into deep space, return to the Moon and go on to Mars. I hope that happens.
I asked this question of Mr. Cernan. Now, I ask this to you. If you had a day in space on the Moon, what would you do?
Well, I’ll say yes for starters.
(Laughs) Of course, we would all say yes!
What would I do? I would love to drive around in some kind of vehicle like he did. I’m sure that I would spend an awful lot of time just simply sitting there and looking at Planet Earth up there in that 3-Dimensional blackness the he described so vividly. I would probably like to take a few of my favorite tunes and just sneakily play them inside of my helmet.
I just got ask what tunes in particular would you like to play while walking on the Moon?
I think Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon comes to mind because I’m of that generation but I may need a little time to think about it.
Thank you Mark for the wonderful interview. Stay tuned as the final part of “The Last Man on the Moon” DC premieres concludes as we interview the film’s producer Mark Stewart. Be sure to check out “The Last Man on the Moon” in select theaters and VIDEO ON DEMAND – TODAY!
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