My artifact was the film, “Hidden Figures” directed by Theodore Melfi. To give a little context about the film, the story follows three female African-Americans protagonists who greatly contributed to several of NASA’s space missions while bearing the discrimination and racism that prevented them from progressing further in their careers. The review I chose for this assignment was an article from The Guardian called “Hidden Figures is a groundbreaking book. But the film? Not so much”. In her review, the author Marie Hicks talks about how the film, while being enjoyable, failed to address the realities of an era where segregation and rampant racism still existed. In the film’s defense, it did portray the unfair treatment African-Americans received in the 60s; e.g. sitting in the back of the bus, colored section for libraries, coffee pots, court rooms, bombing of a bus full of protestors, and many more. However, in Hicks’s own word, the film “takes the stories of three of these women and gives them the Hollywood treatment.” And personally, I’d have to agree. By the end of the film, Katherine (our ostensible protagonist) is acknowledged by her white peers for her work, Mary became NASA’s first African-American engineer, and Dorothy became NASA’s first African-American supervisor. Yet this happy Hollywood ending, leaves much unanswered. Was racism suddenly solved, at least in the confines of the NASA workplace? How did this small (but admirable) advance contribute to the removal of Jim Crow laws?
However, while I do agree with Hicks’s critique of the film, I believe the film still achieved a great deal with its natural limitations when compared to a book. The film, “Hidden Figure”, showed the discrimination many faced in their daily lives. At the same time, it also illustrated the ignorance of many (who aren’t exactly racist or sexist) of those living in the time. It didn’t fail to incite anger in the audience and cause them to relate to the leads, or at least for me.
Link: https://www.theguardian.com/science/the-h-word/2017/feb/13/film-hidden-figures-nasa-black-women-mathematicians-book