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When you picture a scientist, chances are you imagine a wild-eyed, bespectacled man in a white lab coat. A little like Einstein. Or Christopher Lloyd from Back To The Future.
Which is why you need to see Hidden Figures. (We’re can’t wait.) Hidden Figures tells the story of the group of black women – so far MIA from the history books – who helped provide NASA win the Space Race.
Forget Neil Armstrong. Step aside George Clooney and Gravity. Hidden Figures focuses on Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson, Dorothy Vaughan and multitude other black female physicists, mathematicians and “human computers” who calculated rocket trajectories and helped put US astronauts in space.
It’s gutsy, romantic and all-out feminist. But watch the trailer and see for yourself:
The film stars Octavia Spencer and Kirsten Dunst – and Spencer was reportedly so blown away by the script that at first she couldn’t believe it was a true story.
The film is based on a book written by Margot Lee Shetterly, whose father was a NASA scientist.
“For me, growing up in Hampton, Virginia, the face of science was brown like mine. My dad was a NASA lifer, a career Langley Research Center scientist who became an internationally respected climate expert,” she said. “As a child… I knew so many African-Americans working in science, math and engineering that I thought that’s just what black folks did.”
Hidden Figures is released January 12.
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