Hidden Figures (2016)
Three brilliant African-American women at NASA -- Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer) and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe) -- serve as the brains behind one of the greatest operations in history: the launch of astronaut John Glenn (Glen Powell) into orbit, a stunning achievement that restored the nation's confidence, turned around the Space Race and galvanized the world.
Hidden Figures (2016)
A large group of white men surrounding her -almost encapsulating her. they all appear taller than her (power imbalance), all wearing white and ties looking formal but very much the same which could be positive or negative. On one hand, it could imply that she is special to the group; her intelligence is unmatched. However, it could also highlight the segregation in the group. In my opinion -in this particular screencap- it can be viewed in a more positive light, her central positioning alludes to her place as the centre of the project and the brains behind the operation. She is the only one wearing colour and the only person of colour, her dress code highlights her individuality and draws the eyes of the audience to her -- this is done many times in different scenes as well -- which leads me to believe that its to highlight the mass amount of segregation our black leads follow, in other scenes many of the black women are the only ones wearing colour compared to the often beige or grey of the white people. Her non-verbal code (arms folded in front of her) suggests that she is a fraction uncomfortable with the situation but still her much in control and confident (shoulders back, open chest).
Community, Gender and Race
How is racism exposed and dealt with?
From the very first scene where the 3 women are broken down on the side of the road and the police officer comes along, we are exposed to the racism they must face in their everyday lives. The moment they see the police car in the distance they all move to stand in front of their car so as to seem completely non-threatening, the police officer talks down to them and only starts to respect them after they explain their jobs. Later on in the film, we see the microaggressions towards the women begin to amount up, not only are they belittled and not trusted to do their work because they are women but they are also segregated and held back from opportunity because of their skin colour. An example of this is the first time Katherine goes to get herself a cup of coffee; despite no complaints about her checking their calculations or any protest about her being there, the whole room turn their eyes to her and sit with mouths agape and judging stares - Katherine doesn’t react to this until the next day when she returns to find a coffee pot labelled ‘coloured’. This and the fact that she has to travel 40 minutes to a different building for the toilet aren’t corrected until Katherine, emotional after running almost an hour in the rain with paper work, complains to the man in charge of the building. Although he makes moves to change this, he wouldn’t have done so if Mary hadn’t proved her intelligence earlier on.
Hidden Figures (2016)
Screenshot Analysis;
The black and white mise en scene could suggest Katherine’s gain of respect as the black section is larger than the dim white section. This implies her dominance throughout the sequence, but continues to show that segregation is still prominent despite not being relevant to this scene/room.
In this scene Katherine defies her usual dress code, this time wearing something more muted and understated than her normal bright statement pieces. However she still wears her bright red nail varnish and matching lipstick. The colour code of this bright red could imply her confidence and headstrong nature and refers to the ‘gem sparkling in the centre of the room’ imagery the director used earlier in this sequence (see above). Due to the directors choice to put Katherine in a more understated outfit in this scene, we as the audience as well as the men around the meeting table are shown how her intelligence can make her standout and shine. This is also the first scene where we see Katherine’s dress code matching those around her, perhaps illustrating that she is beginning to take her own place in the job position she has worked to get.
The handing over of the chalk is somewhat reminiscent of ‘handing over the torch’ and since this man is in charge (sat at the head of the table) we can assume that he’s giving Katherine the authority she needs to prove herself worthy of a place in the room. Unfortunately this does also comply to the white saviour trope.