Prepare
for a soaring, inspiring and mentally-challenging ride in the
Oscar-nominated movie “Hidden Figures” starring Kevin Costner, Octavia
Spencer, Taraji P. Henson, Janelle Monae, Jim Parsons and Kirsten Dunst.
At last, the story of a visionary trio of women who crossed gender,
race and professional lines on their way to pioneering cosmic travel
comes to the screen in “Hidden Figures” that uncovers the incredible,
untold yet true story of a brilliant group of women who changed the
foundations of the country for the better -- by aiming for the stars.
The film recounts the vital history of an elite team of black female
mathematicians at NASA who helped win the all-out space race against
America’s rivals in the Soviet Union and, at the same time, sent the
quest for equal rights and opportunity rocketing forwards.
Katherine G. Johnson (played by Henson), Dorothy Vaughan (Spencer) and
Mary Jackson (Monae), the chance to use their knowledge, passion and
skills opened up just as the demands of their work in NASA. Whenever
NASA is in need of numbers, they call on their team to solve all
mathematical problems being faced at such time. Director Theodore Melfi
explains: “For NASA, at that moment in time, brains were more
important than race or sex. These were brilliant women who could do the
math they needed, who were hungry for a chance, who really wanted the
opportunity to change their lives – so who else were they going to turn
to?”
At the Langley Memorial Research Lab in Hampton, Virginia – run by the
National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics, or NACA, a precursor to NASA
-- the search was on for luminous minds from nonconventional
backgrounds. They needed gifted people to serve as “human computers” –
that is those rare people with the grey matter to complete rapid-fire,
advanced calculations in their minds, before we had digital super
computers that could precisely plot out rocket trajectories and re-entry
paths.
Touchingly, the real Katherine G. Johnson, now in her 90s, finds the
growing fascination with her life’s work and that of her fellow
compatriots a surprise as she says she was always just doing her best
for her job, her family and her community, as she believes anybody
would. “I was just solving problems that needed to be solved,” she says
with characteristic modesty.
As for what she advises people facing challenges today, Johnson says:
“Stick with it. No matter the problem, it can be solved. A woman can
solve it -- and a man can too, if you give him a lot of time.”
To oversee the film’s mathematical equations and to prepare the cast
for how mathematicians think, the filmmakers brought in consultant Rudy
L. Horne, Ph.D., an Associate Professor of Mathematics at the
historically black Morehouse College. Horne teaches a variety of courses
at Morehouse College but his specialty is applied math, the branch that
looks to solve problems in the real world.
Producer Pharrell Williams hopes the film’s energetic take on math’s
beauty, importance and ability to create exciting things will encourage
more women and minorities to take the leap into a field they may not
have considered. To him, it is just as awesome as becoming a singer,
actor or filmmaker. “The idea of STEM is very important to this film,”
says Williams. “I consider math to be a real art and it’s also a
universal language. It doesn't even matter what solar system you're in,
math applies.”
“Hidden Figures” opens February 22 in cinemas from 20th Century Fox to be distributed by Warner Bros.
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