The moving, untold family story behind Abraham Zapruder's film footage
of the Kennedy assassination and its lasting impact on our world.
Abraham Zapruder didn't know when he ran home to grab his video camera
on November 22, 1963 that this single spontaneous decision would change
his family's life for generations to come. Originally intended as a home
movie of President Kennedy's motorcade, Zapruder's film of the JFK
assassination is now shown in every American history class, included in
Jeopardy and Trivial Pursuit questions, and referenced in novels and
films. It is the most famous example of citizen journalism, a precursor
to the iconic images of our time, such as the Challenger explosion, the
Rodney King beating, and the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers. But few
know the complicated legacy of the film itself.
Now Abraham's granddaughter, Alexandra Zapruder, is ready to tell the
complete story for the first time. With the help of the Zapruder
family's exclusive records, memories, and documents, Zapruder tracks the
film's torturous journey through history, all while American society
undergoes its own transformation, and a new media-driven consumer
culture challenges traditional ideas of privacy, ownership, journalism,
and knowledge.
Part biography, part family history, and part historical narrative,
Zapruder demonstrates how one man's unwitting moment in the spotlight
shifted the way politics, culture, and media intersect, bringing about
the larger social questions that define our age.
