The Zapruder film is the 8mm home movie footage made by a bystander - Abraham Zapruder - in Dallas, Texas at the time of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963. The film was used by the Warren Commission and was widely published in several magazines, including shot-by-shot printing in Life Magazine. The Zapruder frames used by the Commission consist of exhibits 889-899 plus exhibits 901 and 902. (This is less than one second of film.) They were published in Volume XVIII of the Commission's report.
The footage has been deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.
Some dissenters claim that only edited versions of the Zapruder film have ever been published. They point to allegedly impossible movement by persons in the background and irregular signal-light flashing as evidence of cuts, and 59 affidavits that the limousine came to a near or complete stop during the shooting, something which the film does not show. Some of these claims are almost occult, finding golden ratios in the splicing.[[1] "page 2"] Others are convinced that at least the copies in the National Archives are unaltered.[1]
Zapruder's is the best-known movie of the assassination, and given its point of view and time frame, perhaps the best; but it is not the only one. There were at least seven others in Dealy Plaza with home-movie cameras—F. M. Bell, Charles Bronson (not the actor), Robert J. Hughes, Martin, Charles Mentesana, Mary Muchmore, and Orville Nix. Nix's and Muchmore's films include the fatal shot, and Hughes shows the 6th-floor window of the book depository open but empty.[1]
The original filmstrip was purchased by the United States government under the doctrine of eminent domain, and Zapruder's heirs sued to increase the amount paid for the film.
See also: John F. Kennedy assassination
