It was an awe-inspiring day, Jan. 21 with the Women's Marches in Washington, D.C., cities across the U.S. and the world. Women, men and children standing shoulder to shoulder making their stand, speaking out as one body, in defense of human rights — regardless of color, in defense of Planned Parenthood, Roe vs. Wade, the Affordable Care Act, the rights of our LGBT family, friends and neighbors. The largest protest to date the day after the inauguration of the most controversial president to occupy the White House.

It is the perfect time for a film like "Hidden Figures" to be screening in theaters everywhere. This is, in short, another truly excellent film that everyone should see. I applaud and thank the author of the novel “Hidden Figures,” Margot Lee Shetterly, for writing about these three women, mathematician Katherine G. Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), Dorothy Vaughn (Octavia Spencer) and engineer Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe); three intelligent, strong, black women who played major roles in the history of NASA, the Space Race and the U.S.

If Shetterly’s father had not been a research scientist at NASA, his daughter would never have met them. It makes me wonder if we, if the world, would ever have known about them. It makes me wonder how many more stories are yet to be told. Will they be told? If Shetterly has anything to do with it, they will. She has founded The Human Computer Project through which she is researching the names of other black female “computers,” the moniker given to women — black and white — employed as mathematicians at NASA before IBM’s first processing mechanical computers arrived on the scene. Interestingly enough, even after the IBM computers were up and running (thanks to Vaughn) the computations the machines produced were not as trusted as the information women such as Johnson calculated. John Glenn would not go up for his orbital mission until Johnson rechecked the IBM computer’s trajectory calcs! Shetterly will also be researching the names of the black female engineers, mathematicians and scientists at NASA from the 1930s through the 1980s.

But, back to the film based on Shetterly’s 55 page book proposal … The film primarily focuses on Katherine Goble Johnson who with Mary Jackson work in the “colored” computers office with Dorothy Vaughn who has been the acting supervisor for the 30 women there - but not at a supervisor's pay rate. When Vivian Michael (Kirsten Dunst), supervisor over all the “human computers,” asks Dorothy if there is anyone in her department who is excellent in computation skills to work temporarily in the Space Task Group, Dorothy, without hesitation, tells Michael that Katherine is who she wants. Al Harrison (Kevin Costner) is the director of the group, his character based on two of Katherine's actual bosses at NASA. Paul Stafford (Jim Parsons) is a lead engineer on this space flight team (task group) who becomes threatened by Katherine as he realizes, much to his surprise, that she really is brilliant. Stafford, feeling threatened, does his best to thwart any attempt she makes at doing her job — including keeping important information needed to make trajectory calcs. Katherine manages to see right through this - literally and figuratively. 

Katherine disappears for 40 minutes a day — running with folders chock full of computations to be checked to the colored bathroom because there isn't a closer bathroom for her to use. Harrison, exasperated by the pressure he is under to get the U.S. in the race (the Soviet Union having already had success with Sputnik 1) thereby supporting continued funding for NASA, asks Katherine where she disappears to every day. Dripping wet having run to the colored bathroom in the pouring rain, she tells him how far she has to run to get to relieve herself. 

Katherine goes on to tell Harrison about the colored coffee pot (god forbid the white men in the office should have to drink from the same pot as Katherine) — and how she feels about all of it. Then leaves the room. Harrison informs his all-white male staff that the colored coffee pot is now a thing of the past. Harrison goes further as he knocks down a “colored” restroom sign and announces to the group of 30 colored computers, Vaughn, Jackson Katherine, and their white “superiors” that going forward everyone will be sharing the same restrooms. It’s a great scene.

Vaughn becomes the first black supervisor at the NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics) after teaching herself how to program the new IBM computers — and the men that were supposed to get the computers going. 'Course Vaughn steals the Fortran computer language “how to” book from the library's white section after the librarian informs her that she and her two sons cannot be in the white section.

Mary Jackson is assigned to work for the engineer Karl Zielinski (his real life name was Kazimierz Czarnecki) working with a wind pressure tunnel. He encourages her to continue her education and become an engineer. She tells him she will not entertain thoughts about something that is just not possible for a woman, let alone a black woman. Yet, the seed is planted. The courses Jackson needs are not offered at the black college, only at the high school for whites. Mary gets a court date to get the judge to permit her to take the courses. The case she presents is brilliant. Jackson becomes the first black, and female, engineer at NASA. All three women are brilliant.

The actors portraying the people in this film do an extraordinary job, their work is flawless. Screenplay writers Allison Schroeder and Theodore Melfi created a moving, inspirational film that supports the recording of the real life accomplishments of Katherine G. Johnson, Mary Jackson and Dorothy Vaughn for posterity. It is also a film that will, hopefully, remind us all that regardless of color we are all human, all worthy of respect, all contributing, all of us shaping the world we live in by word and deed.

 “Hidden Figures” continues screening at The Harbor Theatre Wednesday, Jan. 25 and Thursday, Jan. 26 at 7 p.m.