Even in passing we know of the all-out space race between the U.S. and the Soviet Union in the early ’60s. We know that at that time space was the new place to dominate. Tensions were running high at NASA then, especially when Russian cosmonaut Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin became the first man to journey into outer space and orbit the earth back in April 21, 1961. But there are parts of this era that are relatively unknown—like how there was an elite group of black female mathematicians at NASA who helped America win the space race against Russia. And that’s where the Theodore Melfi film Hidden Figures puts the focus on.
The award-winning film stars Oscar nominee Taraji P. Henson, who plays the math genius Katherine G. Johnson; Oscar winner Octavia Spencer, who plays the excellent programmer Dorothy Vaughan; and musician Janell Monàe, who plays the amazing engineer Mary Jackson. The movie is based on a book of the same title by Margot Lee Shetterly with its screenplay written by Melfi and Allison Schroeder. And it tells such a powerful, inspirational tale you’d want to see more than once. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves, with the story so character-centric, it would be wrong not to talk about the three amazing women who inspired Hidden Figures.
At the center of the film is Katherine Goble Johnson, in real life and in the film, she was considered a phenom from West Virginia. Dubbed by NASA as “the girl who loved to count,” she started high school at the age of 10 and had degrees in both Mathematics and French by the age of 18. She also became of one of three black students to first integrate into West Virginia University. She started working at Langley for National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), which is the predecessor of NASA. The movie briefly tells her beginnings and shows her life as a real life “computer” at NASA while she was raising her three children by herself.
When the film was being made, Johnson had one request for the filmmakers: that the script shouldn’t just be about her but about the other women she worked with as well. It seemed to echo one of the sentiments of Al Harrison (played by Kevin Costner) in the film, “We all get to the peak together or we don’t get there at all.”
Working alongside Johnson was the equally accomplished Dorothy Vaughan. She finished college at the age of 19 and worked as a math teacher before joining NACA in 1943. Just like in the film, she headed the segregated West Area Computing Unit, but Hidden Figures skewed the timeline a bit. In reality, she was the head of the West Computing group from 1949 to 1958. But in the film as in real life, she was both a respected mathematician and became the first African-American manager at NASA.
Another equally amazing woman who was paid tribute to in the movie was Mary Winston Jackson. The local from Hampton, Virginia had a dual degree in Math and Physical Sciences from Hampton Institute became possibly the first black female aeronautical engineer in her field. She joined Langley in 1951 and specialized in wind tunnel experiments and aircraft data, which was portrayed in the film as well. In real life, she later stepped down from the filled to become Langley’s Federal Women’s Program Manager to help in the hiring and promotion of NASA’s female engineers, scientists, and mathematicians.
It’s a bit baffling how such accomplished women have stayed “hidden” from the spotlight for so long. But at the same time, we’re thankful that films like these get made to not just entertain us but to educate and inspire the many men and, more importantly, women who want to enter the STEM fields.
Even with the skewed timeline, Hidden Figures was able to summarize and capture a bit of what these amazing women have been through in that era.
As director Melfi says, “This story takes place at the collision of the Cold War, the space race, the Jim Crow south, and the birth of the Civil Rights movement.” During this era, there were different state laws in the South for the blacks and whites. As seen in Hidden Figures, the women were denied promotion, forced to use separate and not easily accessible bathrooms, and expected not to complain about their conditions.
And while this was happening, the film showed that conditions were slightly different at NASA (or at least for parts of it). 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?”
And it was an important time, the movie was focused on the events that led up to John Glenn’s launch into space. We get to see what Johnson, Vaughan, and Jackson had to face to make sure their jobs get done right.
The film amplified the unwavering spirit of these women. As Shetterly describes, “It must have been something to be so into your work, so fascinated by these big mathematical problems—and then you have to go use the ‘colored bathroom.’ Then you come back and still have to hold your head high, despite having your status as a second-class citizen pointed out again and again.”
And they didn’t just face troubles outside of Langley but in it, too. The movie depicts subtle racism and sexism from their community and even from within the agency from the likes of Vivian Mitchell (Kirsten Dunst) and Paul Stafford (Jim Parsons). It makes it even more impressive how much these ladies got done despite of all the problems in their way.
Hidden Figures shines the light on such inspiring women that it comes as no surprise that it’s been earning the recognition it deserves. In the US, it became the first live-action, non-franchise film since 2011 that stars more than one female lead to reach no. 1 two weeks in a row (the last film was The Help, which also had Octavia Spencer in it). Hidden Figures even won Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture at the Screen Actor Guild Awards and is up for other nominations this award season. It has also out-earned another popular award-winning movie, La La Land, in the U.S.
While it makes you wonder what took so long, it’s heartening as well to think we’re finally ready to realize the many great contributions women bring to the world. Hidden Figures is a great tale that teaches all of us how to be indispensable at work and to learn to power through whatever challenges we might face. It’s relatable even if you don’t work in their field. It reminds you that hard work pays off and if you put in the time, there are no bounds to what you can do.
Plus, there is that hope that movies like this inspire more young girls to think about pursuing their big dreams, whether that be in the sciences or arts. You get inspired by what you see after all. And the world needs more films like this.
Hidden Figures opens on February 22 in the Philippines.
