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Sadie Burton

Dr. Finney

MCOM 202: 01

18 January 2018

Hidden Figures ​Movie Screening Report

Every year, the student body and faculty members at Emory & Henry College are

encouraged to participate in events to remember Martin Luther King Jr. and his legacy.

The theme for 2018 is “Break the Silence. Be the Change.” According to the MLK Day

Planning Team and the Office of Spiritual Life, “The E&H community will examining the

impact of privilege in each of our lives. We will be challenged to take a hard look at the

many ways in which race, gender, religion, socio-economic status, geographical location,

sexual identity, etc. define the various levels of privilege that we have and how the

privilege of one group often means oppression for others.”

On January 12th, Real Reel, a spiritual life group on campus, provided students

the opportunity to watch ​Hidden Figures​, a biographical film that shares the role that

three African-American women at NASA played in helping launch an astronaut into

space. This 2017 movie, based on the 2016 book with the same name, chronicles the

important contributions made by the women referred to as human computers because

their mathematical abilities and calculations were paramount to the advancement of

America’s space program. The fact that the three central figures in the movie are women

and African American allows the movie to highlight the disparity between opportunities

given to women, especially African Americans, and men in the 1960s.

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​Hidden Figures​ provided keen insight into the racial and gender specific prejudices

of this era. When asked what message she took away from this film, Emory & Henry first

year student Isabel Swafford shared, “As a woman in today’s society, this film shows

how far women have come and how far we still have to go, especially women of color. It

is amazing and heartbreaking to realize how many privileges I am granted as a white

woman.” Recognizing privilege based solely on gender or race was a common reaction

among the students I interviewed, but there were also some moments that related well

to the courage and conviction of Martin Luther King Jr. I asked Andrea Smith what part

of the movie she would remember the most. She responded, “The despair and courage in

Katherine’s voice when she stood up for herself made me cry. She had such courage to

stand up for herself that way and it turned out to be the best thing for her. It reminds me

that sometimes the best things to happen come from some of the most painful and

difficult experiences. We just need to push through those trials and be true to

ourselves.”

Hidden Figures ​was an apt choice for encouraging viewers to consider some of

the privileges in their own lives that hardly seemed monumental before witnessing the

discrimination in the film. It was also an opportunity to see three women who embodied

courage, strength, passion, and humility in ways that speak to the legacy of Martin

Luther King Jr. Smith’s response to my final question about how to continue to break

barriers offers advice for all of us, “We need to continuously encourage young people to

be all that they can be. We need to point out their strengths, help them refine those

strengths, provide them with resources to build their understanding of who they are and
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what they can do. We can give them examples of people of all different backgrounds who

have done amazing things.” ​Hidden Figures​ provides its audience with important

lessons to consider not only on the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, but every day of the

year.