Non-fiction: Zapruder film

Overview
Abraham Zapruder’s 1963 home movie, commonly called the Zapruder film, is a color, silent 8 mm recording of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas on November 22, 1963. Lasting roughly 26 seconds at about 18 frames per second, it captured in stark detail the presidential motorcade as it passed through Dealey Plaza and the moments of gunfire that fatally wounded the president. Owing to its clarity, proximity, and unbroken perspective, the film became the most scrutinized visual document of the event and a central piece of historical evidence, shaping public understanding and official investigations of the assassination.

Creation and content
Zapruder, a Dallas clothing manufacturer, filmed from a concrete pedestal along the grassy knoll, where his assistant Marilyn Sitzman steadied him as the limousine approached. Using a Bell & Howell Zoomatic camera, he panned smoothly as the motorcade entered view, turned onto Elm Street, and drew nearly parallel to his position. The sequence shows the president and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy waving to the crowd, Texas Governor John Connally seated ahead, and the sudden disruption as shots are fired. Investigators later numbered the frames Z1 to Z486; frame Z313 is often cited as showing the fatal head shot. The film’s visual continuity, without cuts and from a stable vantage, made it uniquely valuable for timing the shots, assessing reactions inside the limousine, and correlating witness accounts with the physical layout of Dealey Plaza.

Circulation and ownership
Immediately after filming, Zapruder provided the footage to authorities so copies could be made for investigative use. He sold publication rights to Life magazine, which published selected frames but withheld the moving footage from broad circulation for years, citing considerations of taste and sensitivity. For much of the 1960s and early 1970s, the general public encountered the assassination through printed stills rather than the moving image. In 1975, a televised broadcast of a bootleg copy on a national program shocked viewers, ignited renewed debate, and contributed to congressional reopening of the case. The original film eventually entered the U.S. government’s JFK assassination records collection and is held by the National Archives, with modern preservation copies and high-resolution scans facilitating research and public access.

Use as evidence and public impact
The Warren Commission examined the film in 1964 as part of its inquiry into the assassination, using it to establish a timeline of events and trajectories in relation to the Texas School Book Depository. The later House Select Committee on Assassinations also relied on the film, alongside acoustic, medical, and ballistic evidence, to revisit the sequence of shots and reactions. Beyond official inquiries, the film became a touchstone for journalists, historians, and independent researchers who analyzed frame-by-frame motion, body positions, and vehicle speed. Its visceral images profoundly influenced public memory of the assassination, raising ethical questions about violence on screen and the responsibilities of publishers and broadcasters when presenting graphic historical material.

Legacy
The Zapruder film stands as an emblematic artifact of modern history: an accidental documenter’s work that became indispensable evidence. It spurred advances in forensic image analysis, restoration techniques, and time-motion studies, and it remains a benchmark for how citizen-made recordings can shape collective understanding of major events. While debates over interpretation persist, the film’s enduring significance lies in its unflinching record of a pivotal national trauma and its role in anchoring both official reconstructions and ongoing historical scholarship.