Families Give Thumbs Up to Roth

New York, New York, USA. (SANEPR.com) November 20, 2007 -- Jeffrey Roth’s awarding winning space documentary, The Wonder of It All, inspired more than 150 attendees during a special viewing held at the Endeavour Center on Vandenberg Air Force Base over the weekend. The film shares interviews on seven of the twelve former astronauts who walked on the lunar surface from 1969-1972, and offers a portrait into their personalities never captured on camera before.

“We recently interviewed Jeff Roth in our November-December issue,” said LAUNCH Editor-in-Chief Mark Mayfield, “and he is passionate and excited about the subject of America’s history in space. The documentary is being wonderfully received around the nation and abroad and that reflects on Roth’s style—the questions he asked and his editing skill.”

The 82-minute space documentary explores the history, risk, spirituality, and legacy each astronaut felt before and after the lunar landing. Many of the former astronauts viewed themselves as merely aviators or pilots, and not as explorers. Others likened their effort to be more like Lewis and Clark doing a calculated expedition into an unfamiliar region, but not on par with Columbus who risked everything to venture into the unknown and had no guarantee of returning.

In a Q&A session following the film, Roth shared with the audience that in creating the documentary, he was affected by the lives of these space pioneers. The filmmaker described them as “humble” men who felt they were simply “doing their duty.”

“The Wonder of It All documentary film showed beautifully the personal human experience behind the Apollo astronauts and mission,” commented Edmund Burke, CEO/President, Space Information Laboratories (SIL), Inc., the parent organization that hosted the special viewing at the Endeavour Center.

“The coordination of Roth’s film with the Endeavour Center by SIL is what LAUNCH is all about,” added Mayfield. “We love to see support for space enterprise, rockets, and science on a grassroots level. We were more than happy to help out where we could.” LAUNCH provided the attendees free issues of the magazine to compliment the event.

Roth sees the film as a powerful educational tool. In a recent visit to Norway, Roth observed how the audience was younger, mostly in their 20s, who were showing interest in the documentary and wanted to know what happened—why did America simply stop and not go further in creating a lunar colony. In contrast, most U.S. audiences are older ranging from established families to seniors.

“We were hoping that this event would create awareness that we [The Endeavour Center"> are here,” said Moksha Badarayan, Director, The Endeavour Center, “and that we have plans for the future. We want to do more events like this one.”

For information on The Endeavour Center visit http://www.endeavours.org/sec/index.htm.
For information on the film visit http://www.thewonderofitallfilm.com.
For information on LAUNCH Magazine visit http//:LAUNCHmagonline.com

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