Anglais : hidden figures

Hidden Figures [pic 1]

Shadow Figures is an American biographical drama co-written, co-produced and directed by Theodore Melfi, released in 2016

It is an adaptation of the book entitled Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly featuring African-American calculators Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson who contributed to the aeronautical and space programs of the NASA. The film shows how Katherine Johnson came to calculate the trajectories of the Mercury program and the Apollo 11 mission to the moon in 1969, how Dorothy Vaughan became head of the computer calculations department and Mary Jackson the first African-American female aeronautical engineer.

This film tell the extraordinary fate of the three African-American scientists who allowed the United States to take the lead in the conquest of space, thanks to the launching of astronaut John Glenn. Kept in the shadow of their male colleagues and in that of a country facing deep inequalities, their long-unrecognized story is finally brought to the screen.

In this biopic the physicist and mathematician Katherine Johnson is the character pay tribute in this film, this role is played by the radiant Taraj P.Henson and in this film Theo Helfi also knew how to pay tribute to Dorothy Vaughan played by Octavia Spencer who already played in other biopic as well as to mary Jackson played by Janelle Monae. Each character has one thing in common: they are racially segregated black women in the United States in the 1960s and all three are what NASA calls human computers.

The three women are proud to have played this and say that katherine, daurothy and mary are a pride of the nation and have enabled the united states to move forward in the issue of segregation and women's rights. They also say that these were roles that had to be played because she did not want to denigrate their images, Mary tells us that she had to make changes to her facial featues for the film and the three of them must have been interested in physics to understand and play their roles well.

Americans have good reason to be proud of their space program. In this film, it is the very beginning of this space course that is discussed. It was the Mercury program that enabled John Glenn to follow in Yuri Gagarin's footsteps in the 1960s. The director, however, gives us another very important approach to the United States, the struggle for black emancipation. Added to this struggle for racial equality is the outline of what will become the women's liberation movement. Moreover the actresses perfectly the roles of Dorothy, Katherine and mary and they give us a magnificent image of these three women.

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