Project Detail

She Should Have Gone To The Moon

Synopsis

She Should Have Gone To The Moon tells the astonishing story of the pilot and pioneer, Jerri Truhill, who was trained in 1961, as part of NASA's top secret Mercury 13 programme, to become one of the First Lady Astronauts.

The documentary is about Jerri Truhill's ambition to conquer the unknown and the filmmaker's fascination with a woman who dared to break down all barriers in aviation. Set against a momentous era in American history, the film constructs both an intimate portrait of Truhill and explores a unique chapter in American culture and society.

In the film, the sharp-witted Jerri Truhill looks back on her compelling life via a phone call with the filmmaker. This conversation becomes the catalyst for the director's imagining of key events in Truhill's potent narrative and inspires a journey to meet the heroine in Texas.
Along the way, the filmmaker places herself in Truhill's story, first wandering across the surreal landscape of White Sands and then suspended in zero gravity inside a water tank.

Included are stylized and dreamlike scenes, which are counter pointed by shots from both Truhill's and NASA's film archive.

The various strands produce the film's heady timeline, as they circle through real and imagined spaces and merge into a bittersweet interview with Truhill at her home.

Details

Year
2007
Type of film
Features
Running time
70 mins
Format
DigiBeta
Director
Ulrike Kubatta 1st Feature
Producer
Alan Fountain
Editor
Enric Junoy
Director of Photography
Sam Montague, Stuart Roweth
Sound
Mitch Wayne
Composer
Martin Pavey
Principal cast
Jerri Truhill

Production Status

Production Company

Funded by the Arts Council England

Made in association with
LEAP MEDIA

Mark Lonsdale

74A Hubert Grove
London SW9 9PD
UK

T +44 (0)7958 980 269

lonsdale_mark@hotmail.com

Sales Company

Funded by the Arts Council England

Made in association with
LEAP MEDIA

Mark Lonsdale

74A Hubert Grove
London SW9 9PD
UK

T +44 (0)7958 980 269

lonsdale_mark@hotmail.com

Page updates

This page was last updated on 12th May 2025. Please let us know if we need to make any amendments or request edit access by clicking below.

See also

You may also be interested in other relevant projects in the database.

No Women No Children No Women No Children

Director: Akporé Uzoh

Year: 2025

The aftermath of a sexual assault (rape). Exploring the deep-felt consequences for all involved. At its heart an epic story of a couple's fight for the survival of their love.

Spacewoman Spacewoman

Director: Hannah Berryman

Year: 2024

A landmark feature documentary about astronaut Eileen Collins, the first woman to pilot and command the Space Shuttle. Eileen’s incredible journey starts with her smalltown beginnings, sees her smash through many glass ceilings, and culminates in four dramatic space shuttle missions, the last being possibly the most dangerous and most important of them all. At its heart the film is the moving human drama of one family, where a mother’s extraordinary career takes us straight to the big philosophical question of what is the level of acceptable risk in human endeavour? This film celebrates Commander Collins’ trailblazing NASA career which opened the way for women to become spacecraft pilots and commanders, and proved a perfect riposte to a previous generation of male astronauts who thought there was no place for women to lead the way in space. Official Selection DOC NYC 2024 - World premiere Official Selection CPH:DOX 2025 - European premiere

Freeing Flipper (Working Title) Freeing Flipper (Working Title)

Director: Barney Douglas

Year: 2026

The extraordinary story of Richard “Ric” O’Barry, once the world’s highest-paid dolphin trainer, now their most passionate defender, risking his life and liberty to free these remarkable creatures from captivity. In the 1960s, Ric was America’s leading dolphin trainer at the Miami Seaquarium and the celebrated trainer behind the hit TV series Flipper, whose smiling stars enchanted a generation. Everything changed after the apparent suicide of one of the show’s dolphins, Kathie - a moment that shattered his beliefs and set him on a radical path from insider to activist. For over 50 years, Ric has led a global campaign against dolphin captivity. As founder of Dolphin Project, he has risked arrest, injury, and personal loss to rescue dolphins and expose the industry’s darkest secrets. Both celebrated and criticised, he remains steadfast that every captive dolphin can be returned to the wild. Told through intimate family access, joyous underwater imagery, and covert filming, Ric’s mission has transformed a non-issue into a global movement. Now 85, he must ask: after a lifetime spent freeing others, can he finally set himself free?