Image of an Assassination: A New Look at the Zapruder Film (1998)

Writers: H.D. Motyl
Stars: Peter Dean (voice), Joseph Barabe, Phil Chamberlain

This first commercially available video version of the legendary 26-second "Zapruder Film"–the 8mm record of John F. Kennedy's 1963 assassination, which was filmed by Abraham Zapruder–provoked a storm of controversy when it first appeared on video shelves. Added to the National Film Registry in 1994, this historical document remains a significant record of one of the nation's most devastating events and is still cited as a key piece of evidence in the debate over the truth of Kennedy's murder. This unprecedented release has been digitally mastered with the approval of the Zapruder family. An accompanying documentary, which explores the mastering process in detail, features a short portrait of Zapruder and a fascinating history of the film's official and unofficial showings up to the present. The tape also includes a frame-by-frame analysis of the film, a chronology of events, and additional historical video. This short film is still too gruesome and upsetting for many to watch, but Abraham Zapruder's famous home movie remains to this day one of the most controversial pieces of filmed history