Zapruder-Film (1963) watch online HD

This is the most studied piece of film in the history of cinematography.

When the film was released publicly in 1975 many people assumed that Mrs. Kennedy jumped on the trunk after the shooting because she was frightened and trying to get out of the way. Some years later the secret service agent who jumped onto the bumper and trunk revealed that she was actually trying to retrieve a piece of the president's brain that had landed on the back of the car.

Although Abraham Zapruder made a profit from selling the film, he was so disturbed by the nightmare he had filmed that he did not keep a copy. He never owned or used another camera again.

Zapruder, always known amongst his peers as a kind man, donated the first payment from the film to the widow of Officer J.D. Tippitt, the Dallas Police Officer who was murdered shortly after and in connection with Kennedy's murder.

Zapruder suffered from vertigo and had to have one of his secretaries, Mrs. Sitzsman, to steady him while he shot the film.

The Kodak Photo Lab in Dallas made several copies of the original for the Secret Service, however they forgot to make a copy for the FBI. The FBI had to make a copy from one of the Secret Service copies which turned out poorly.

The film of President John F. Kennedy's assassination was first taken to Dallas television station WFAA-TV for immediate developing. An ABC affiliate then and now, WFAA-TV was among the first TV stations to broadcast the footage, in 1975, during an episode of Geraldo Rivera's Good Night America (1973) investigative news program.

Frames 220-225 of the film is the most studied because on it the car emerges from behind the street sign. The anguished looks on the faces of President Kennedy and Governor Connally reveal that this was the moment of the second shot (the first hit to hit).

The camera that Abraham Zapruder used in the filming was a mechanical, spring-wound, 8-millimeter Bell & Howell Model 414PD Zoomatic Director, with a Varamat 9-27mm f1.8 zoom lens, set for full close-up. The film was Kodachrome II color stock running at 18.3 frames per second. The footage runs for 26 seconds, which is remarkable because each winding of the camera's mainspring lasts only 30 seconds.

This is not the only film of the Kennedy assassination, but it is the only film that recorded the shooting from beginning to end.

The president is hit in the head at frame 312, and some of his brain matter and blood spray forward at frame 313.

The film begins on Frame 001 as the first police motorcycle turns onto Elm Street and ends on frame 486, a lingering shot of the tunnel under which the car has disappeared from view.

The National Archives stored the film on behalf of Zapruder's heirs, but has since used eminent domain compensation to appropriate the film and now owns the original outright.

The entire length of the film is approximately 3 meters (about 9 feet).

The film was shot from the northwest side of Elm St. facing southeast. The Kennedy motorcade moves from left to right.