2004, followed by a debate and accompanied by a web site including an interview of William Karel and a quiz demonstrating some of the giveaways including the fake witnesses and out-of-context quotes from interviews. At the press screening before the first airing, some people who had missed the beginning left the screening room infuriated. The producer proposed the film to the BBC, who liked it but rejected it because they perceived it as being part of an "anti-American campaign" in French documentaries. Moon landing conspiracy theories When the film was shown to a group of sociology students studying conspiracy theories, many mistakenly believed that this was a sincere and serious film. Furthermore, Moon-landing hoax advocate Wayne Green cited the film as evidence for his views, apparently believing the out of context footage of Nixon staff was really about a Moon landing hoax, as discussed on Jay Windley's "clavius.org" site defending the reality of the Moon landings. Extracts ranging from a few minutes to the whole film stripped of the credits and key sequences have been posted on YouTube by conspiracy theorists as "proof" that, either the images on the Moon are fake, or the Moon landing itself never happened. Karel himself received e-mails congratulating him for "exposing the Moon landing hoax", which amused him. Awards Adolf-Grimme-Preis (Germany / 2002) for best script & director Influences William Karel indicated that he found inspiration in Orson Welles' radio broadcast The War of the Worlds, Capricorn One, and the docudramas by Peter Watkins. He refers to Dark side of the Moon as a "documenteur", a French portmanteau word meaning "liar documentary" (from documentaire "documentary" + menteur "liar"), after the title of a film made by Agnès Varda in 1980-1981. Other influences are the staging of well-known historical events for the camera, such as the raising of the flags at Iwo-Jima and at the Reichstag, the American landing in Somalia which was remade a couple of times for the cameras, examplifying the influence of cinema on news coverage. See also Moon landing conspiracy theories in popular culture Capricorn One — a thriller film about faked Mars landing but failed re-entry leading to a murder conspiracy Wag the Dog — a comedy-drama film about war being faked in a studio Literature Taylor, Henry M. (2007): More than a Hoax. William Karel's Critical Mockumentary Dark Side of the Moon. In: Post Script, 26:3, p. 88–101. References