The short documentary, 2001 A Space Odyssey: A Look Behind the Future is a fascinating artifact of film history. As the folks at Coudal Partners point out, it might be a little “cornball” at times, but it still serves to give context for thoughts around space exploration from technical experts and artists in the late 1960s.
The introduction to the film explains that the real world was about to change dramatically, with humanity’s continued conquests in space. The concern then was how to prepare for such radical change. Science fiction, it seems, was their answer:
One means of preparing ourselves for the future is to educate by entertaining. The following film describes an unusual motion picture now being produced in London for release all over the world starting early in 1967.
Director Stanley Kubrick isn’t interviewed for this “behind the scenes” film, but somehow that makes the thing all the more interesting and mysterious to me. No wonder NASA hired him to fake the moon landing.