To Fly! director Greg MacGillivray and Christopher Nolan discuss the lasting impact of the pioneering 1976 documentary.
Fifty years ago, two filmmakers believed that the still-new Imax format could fly. On July 1, 1976, the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. — at that point was one of only four venues globally to house an Imax screen — premiered To Fly!, a 27-minute history of American innovation in aviation, from cloud-touching hot-air balloons to galaxy-exploring spaceships.
Commissioned by the Smithsonian as part of its slate of Bicentennial programming, the movie was only intended to play for the calendar year. But director Greg MacGillivray, who made the film with his late collaborator, Jim Freeman, always knew that, if executed correctly, To Fly! could be something… more.
