"Hidden Figures": Women of Color Behind The Space Program

"Hidden Figures: The Women of Color Behind The Space Program, is a gem of a film.Several stunning films with compelling female characters are being released this winter, just in time for the holidays comes New York Times Bestseller and Fox Searchlight’s soulful film, “Hidden Figures”. Hitting the screens on January 6th, highlighting the true plight of black female mathematicians working at NASA as accountants. Dorothy Vaughan, the original brains behind the science of trajectory space launch and landings, numerically calculated the math for re-entry on chalk boards before the leading group of white elite engineers, dealing with segregation as egos the size of a black hole, back in the 1960’s during the start of the Space Program.

Becoming feminists as well as civil rights leaders by developing calculations to help fuel America into space, Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, and singer Janelle Monae (making a stunning screen debut) lead the team of black accountants and secretary pool assistants from temporary workers into pioneers of the program. Dramatically through the frustrations of their lives and segregated bathrooms to outright discrimination, Kirsten Dunst, supervises the women, seeming indifferent while realizing there is little she can do to help elevate their positions into permanent once the program is complete. Jim Parsons, and Kevin Costner,  are play the cool elite mathematicians who finally give Katherine Johnson and colleagues, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson, the chance to go from working in the segregated West Area Computers division of Langley Research Center to programming the first IBM computer system for NASA. Using the women’s calculations, John Glenn became the first American astronaut to complete a full orbit of the Earth. The director of St. Vincent, Theodore Melfi, did a lovey job of pacing the rise and fall of the various struggles the women encounter – from segregated coffee pots, under paid wages for jobs done as supervisors but no title, to the ultimate showdown over the bathroom situation for the women, becoming the highlight of the movie. Sure to warm the hearts of even the coldest Republican white male, it makes a compelling story of how IBM enters into the Space program, as the success and failure lie in the hands of the segregated community afraid to let the black women who know how to run it. “Hidden Figures” has stunning performances by the ensemble cast, and I’m sure a few Golden Globes will be headed this way for Taraji P. Henson and Octavia Spencer, as well as our favorite Space Freak Geek from the Big Bang Theroy’s, Jim Parson, transformed into a serious Sheldon Cooper, who doesn’t equate equality with race. A stunning tribute to the women behind the successful men who not only support them but achieve their own milestone, the best moments are over sharing a cup of coffee - the true meaning of working together as equals. Bravo to “Hidden Treasures” for a film truly worth seeing.
12.2.2016 Toni Pezone Crey