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Brief 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.

Photo: Martin Pavey

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