Hidden Figures

I stumbled across this article the other day and thought it was worth mentioning to the class, seeing as representation of people of color in film (both on and off screen) has been a topic of discussion as of late. Hidden Figures is a film centered around three female African-American mathematicians—Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson—all of whom played important, key roles in the NASA space center during the 1960’s.The plot of the movie itself is quite interesting as one would not normally find black women—or women of color in general—to be in the starring role unless perhaps they were appearing opposite of a white male lead. Having a film told in the perspective of three women during the 1960’s working on the space race project with NASA in the midst of the Cold War definitely seems like a fascinating storyline, yet leaves one wondering why figures like Katherine Johnson are somewhat lost in American history in comparison to other big figures of the 60’s (eg. MLK, Malcolm X, and JFK), as women such as her all played very important roles in history. Overall, the film seems promising in highlighting not social aspects such as race and segregation issues prominent in that time period, but also the gender inequality of that time.

The article acknowledges that with the recent pressure via “#oscarssowhite” the film will likely be categorized as a response to the underrepresentation/erasure of people of color in media although planning and production for Hidden Figures began years prior of the Oscar’s unrest surfacing. The film’s director, Ted Melfi laments that “[Hidden Figures is] not a reactionary movie, but it will be seen as one, which is unfortunate.” This comment can be interpreted in various ways and I strongly urge everyone to ponder its potential message(s). Actresses Tajari Henson (Katherine Johnson) and Octavia Spencer (Dorothy Vaughan) both note that labeling Hidden Figures as a “black film” does a disservice to both the actors/actresses and film itself. Octavia Spencer asserts that the film is first and foremost a homage to the contributions that women (of any race/ethnicity) made to society that are often left-out or all together forgotten in present American society.

Read the whole article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/22/movies/taraji-p-henson-octavia-spencer-hidden-figures-rocket-science-and-race.html?_r=1