To Fly on AllMovie

One of the great unsung landmarks of American documentary, the 27-minute short film To Fly emerged from the efforts and monies of the National Air and Space Museum and was first projected at the Smithsonian Museum exactly three days before the U.S. Bicentennial, on July 1, 1976. As one of the earliest examples of the IMAX format, it was shot using a three-camera, three-projector method and invoked the talents of heavyweights including Francis Thompson (To Be Alive!, Robert M. Young (One-Trick Pony) and Alexander 'Sasha' Hammid (The Private Life of a Cat). It also marked one of the earliest efforts of writer-producer Greg MacGillivray, who in subsequent years became a pioneer of IMAX movies. The film itself offers an evocative, panoramic overview of flight and transportation in America as it evolved over the course of the 20th Century - with touchstones including a trip over Niagara Falls in a hot-air balloon, footage of early barnstorming flights, hang gliding in Hawaii, and much more. Significantly, To Fly! not only ran around the country for years after its initial release, but was selected for the Library of Congress's National Film Registry in 1995.