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STARTING IN AUGUST, video stores will sell copies of the film the late Abraham Zapruder, a Dallas dressmaker, shot as the president,s motorcade moved through Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963, The Washington Post reported in Friday's editions.
The 45-minute production is in color and features historical narratives, interviews and a look at the filmmaking process. It will cost $19.98 for a VHS cassette and $24.98 for a digital video disk.
The digitally enhanced version is clearer than the copies used in documentaries and movies though the years, experts say. "The first time I saw it, I literally gasped because it's so shocking," Waleed Ali, president of MPI Home Video, told The Post. The company, based in Orland Park, Ill., is producing the video. "The clarity is breathtaking. This is literally as crisp and clear as the original in the vault."
The decision to make the film available on video comes as the Zapruder family continues sparring with the government over how much the original is worth.
The original Zapruder film is considered a key piece of evidence in the investigation of Kennedy's assassination, and it has been stored in a National Archives film vault since the 1970s. The family maintained the rights throughout the years.
But last year, a government board declared that the film was the possession of the people of the United States, and said the government would determine how much to compensate the family for its rights.
The Justice Department has offered the family $750,000 while indicating that the upper range might reach as high as $3 million. The family is seeking $18.5 million.
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