Film Research Project: Blog Post 5

When comparing my film Hidden Figures, to the others listed in the prompt, I feel as though my movie relates only to two of them, 12 Years a Slave and Glory. With both the movies just mentioned, they both have to do with slavery and segregation, just like Hidden Figures. Not so much of the slavery part, Hidden Figures was a movie about three African-American women, fighting to maintain their jobs at NASA as they are in the middle of the well known Space Race.

In the movie, Hidden Figures, three women, Katherine G. Johnson, Mary Jackson and Dorothy Vaughan were all African-American women and working at NASA. Located in Hampton, Virginia, all three worked at the Langley Research Center, in the West Computing Group. With all three women dealt with segregation at this time, 1961, many obstacles came about when they tried to get ahead. With problems including being a woman and a woman of color, these ladies had a hard time moving up but an easy time falling down. Being connected to the movie, 12 Years a Slave, the movie Hidden Figures was also about an autobiography of the main character Katherine G. Johnson. Even though the movie also focuses on Mary and Dorothy, Katherine obtained most of the spotlight. This movie also consisted of bringing to life the actual experiences that this historical figure experienced. In both movies, being a man or woman of a different color/race. But with Solomon's story coming from himself, and autobiography, Katherine's came from interviews and a book written about her and her colleagues. Hidden Figures, was both a "feel good" movie and a "not so feel good" movie, when Katherine finally moves up to the Space Task Group, you feel happy for her, but then you see the way people treated her and then you feel bad for her. Throughout the entire movie, it consisted of a lot of ups and downs the African-American women faced during the time of segregation. Not only do they experience the hate at work, but the women are also seen sitting in the "colored" section of the bus, getting books from the "colored" section of the library and drinking from the "colored" water fountain out in town. When Dorothy is in town with her two sons, they actually witness a protest in the middle of the town. The young African-American people were participating, holding up signs and chanting and you also see the police officers with their police dogs trying to stop them. This really reminded me of the Children's March in Birmingham that we went to see. We all know what was going on in this time era, the 1950s-1960s, but we tend to look away and not think about how awfully we treated these African-American people. I would say that yes the director is trying to teach us the hard truth about slavery and segregation because we were lucky enough to not experience it. We being the "children of the future", weren't treated like these men and women were during this time period. I would most definitely say that this movie was a HUGE success and that this movie was also a work of art too.

Trying to find the similarities between Hidden Figures and Glory was a little more challenging. Glory, a movie from the point of view from a white commander during the Civil War, did not have the same problems as the African-American men did during the Civil War. With some of the men being former slaves and even some being free men, it didn't really make connections with Hidden Figures as 12 Years a Slave did. But in some areas, the movies did have similarities, for example they used an event to draw people into the film, they both told a story about overcoming their differences and working together and also both movies tugged at the heart strings provoking emotional responses. In Hidden Figures, the director used one of America's proudest moment to draw an audience in, the Space Race. During the Cold War, the Russians had just launched their spy satellite and America needed to respond! They needed to put a man in space! With the help of Katherine G. Johnson, Col. John Glenn was able to orbit the earth three times and successfully make it back to earth. With Katherine working everyday in a room full of white men, it was hard for her to work with them as all the men underestimated her. They even had a "colored" coffee dispenser made only for her because she drank out of theirs one day. But in the end, Katherine did successfully calculate the trajectories for Friendship 7, John Glenn's space shuttle, and with her help the mission was a success! The men of the Space Task Group finally started to appreciate Katherine and felt as if she was just like them. Overcoming their different skin colors and genders wasn't easy for the men, but the eventually did it and after the success of Friendship 7 they again worked together on the Apollo 11 mission to the moon. The "tugging at the heart strings" moments consisted of Katherine's speech about having to use the colored bathroom across campus and having to drink from an old coffee dispenser that no one wanted to touch. This movie was in no way relatable to the young audience watching it, at least I realized that I was lucky enough not to be born during this era and that I was never treated the way that not only these women were but all the African-Americans were.

The historical accuracy of this movie was spot on after my research proved all the events were true events. For example, when John Glenn was about to go up into space he said, "Get the girl to do it. I want this human computer to check the output of electronic computer and if she says they're good, you know, I'm good to go as part of my pre-flight checklists." (Shetterly) Glenn actually said this not only in the movie but in real life as the real Katherine G. Johnson says. She was in the room when Glenn called and she successfully calculated the trajectories for him, as he had requested. Not only did Glenn say that but according to the newspaper that had a step-by-step recording of all Glenn's moves that day. On February 20, 1962, John Glenn woke up and he knew he was going to make history today. When he was up in space, and talking with the Space Task Group, Glenn experienced some very high temperature, 3000 degrees Fahrenheit to be exact. He said to the Space Task Group, "Boy that was a real fireball" (Historical) this quote was not only captured in the newspaper that day but also in the movie as well. In the newspaper, it also stated that Glenn successfully completed "3 orbits" (Historical) as it did in the movie. One more quote that I found to be true in real life and said in the movie is when John Glenn and some of his fellow astronauts were being interviews. An interviewer asked the men who wanted to go to go into space next and all of the men raised their arms telling the interviewer that all of them wanted to go next. In a newspaper, published in May of 1961, the interview was recorded and then put in this newspaper "Shepard was requested to ask his fellow astronaut which one of them wanted to take the next flight. 'How about it fellows?' Shepard asked, and all the astronauts raised their hands." (Historical) This movie I believe was extremely accurate with not only the events happening with the Space Race, but also on how the African-Americans were treated. We were told at the beginning of the movie "Based on True Events" and I believe it 100%.

Film Research Project: Blog Post 4

Works Cited:

"Historical Newspapers from 1700s-2000s." Newspapers.com. Web. 15 May 2017.

"Historical Newspapers from 1700s-2000s." Newspapers.com. Web. 15 May 2017.

Shetterly, Margot Lee. Hidden Figures: The Untold True Story of Four African-American Women Who Helped Launch Our Nation into Space. New York, NY: Harper, An Imprint of HarperCollins, 2016. Print

Film Research Project: Blog Post 3

menu for the dinner party:

• hot dogs
• moon pies
• astronaut ice cream
• milky way bars
• chocolate pie
• coffee

explanation of the menu:

for the space party, we have to have "space food"!! the hot dogs are going to be shaped like rockets, which is one of the main focuses of the movie. the moon pies are well moon pies, pretty self-explanatory. the astronaut ice cream is also very self explanatory, i mean it's what john glenn ate on the friendship 7!! the milky way bar is another one which is self explanatory, i mean john glenn was in the milky way galaxy, i mean we are in the milky way galaxy right now!! the chocolate pie is dorothy's favorite dessert! so we had to include it!! and lastly coffee, this is what everyone was running on at NASA! and since everyone is very addicted to it, we had to include it also!

Film Research Project: Blog Post 2

this picture is a picture of a 1957 Friden STW-10 mechanical calculator. this was the calculators that all the men and women used at NASA and during this time.



this is a picture of katherine g. johnson at work in NASA, featured across from her is a celestial training device, each NASA worker had one of them at their desks just like the 1957 Friden STW-10 mechanical calculator.



this image is a picture of the IBM machine in NASA, this machine was supposed to put a lot of human computers out of a job, but instead the human computers worked on/for the IBM machine. dorothy vaughan became the supervisor for this machine and taught a lot of women how to use it.



this image is a picture of the staff of the supersonic pressure tunnel in 1950s. actually pictured in the very bottom right is mary jackson, one of the main characters and a hidden figure of NASA's space program.


this image is a picture of the very famous col. john glenn, pictured next to his shuttle the friendship 7. this is the shuttle that katherine, mary and dorothy all worked on.


this image is a picture of the famous ride that jfk took with john glenn after the successful trajectory of the friendship 7. this was the "homecoming ride".


this image is a picture of the real katherine g. johnson, a little older, receiving the presidential medal of freedom from the president. she received this medal for all the work she did for NASA.

this image is a very famous image of katherine g. johnson at her desk at NASA.

Film Research Project: Blog Post 1

guest list:

• katherine g. johnson
• mary jackson
• dorothy vaughan
• robert c. gilruth
• john glenn
• ted skopinski
• margot lee shetterly
• theodore melfi

guest list explained:

with the movie Hidden Figures, the women katherine, mary and dorothy were not only the main characters but were the women that helped the Friendship 7 become the first manned space ship to orbit the earth. this is why i invited: katherine g. johnson (the best human computer in NASA), mary jackson (america's and NASA's first woman to become an engineer) and dorothy vaughan (one of the smartest minds at NASA). these women were the backbone of NASA and my honored guests. robert c. gilruth was the head of the space task group, where katherine worked as the human computer. he gave katherine a chance when nobody else would. john glenn is another big part of the launch of Friendship 7, well because he was in the shuttle! he was another person to not look the other way at the african american women that worked at NASA. ted skopinski was a big part of katherine's climb, because he was one that kept pushing her down. he didn't like and didn't respec katherine like most of the men and women during the 1960s. with segregation happening during this movie, all the african american women were ridiculed while they were working at NASA and everywhere else. margot lee shetterly is the author to the book Hidden Figures, the movie was based off of the book that she wrote. she researched, interviewed the women/men and worked extremely hard to create this book to reveal the women behind NASA. lastly, theodore melfi is the director of the movie Hidden Figures, he created an excellent movie that portrayed african american's lives during segregation. he did a great job making the movie/script/cast. i think he would have great insight on why he made the actors do certain things.

Radios in the 1930s

welcome back my history fans!! today we are learning about radios. my part of the assignment was how is the technology different from the radios we have today. with radio technology now and then, the detection of communication schedules remain almost the same between then and now both consisting of electromagnetic waves travelling through the air.

the differences in radios between then and now:

• then
• they used to be about 4 feet tall
• really no differences
• now
• can be handheld
• tooks very different
• easier to tune
• easier to receive connections
• you can connect your phones to them

 

picture of a 1930 radio

picture of a 2017 radio

thanks for reading!!

xoxo ellie

WWI Poster Analysis

welcome back history fanatics!! today i am analyzing a couple of WWI propaganda posters. but first i need to answer a few questions.

1. to me, the word propaganda means a type of way to mislead the reader and have a very biased opinion over a certain subject

2. propaganda: information, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread widely to help or harm a person, group, movement, institution, nation, etc.

3. for the propaganda posters i will be analyzing include posters 1, 2, & 4.

poster 1:
with this poster it is very striking to me whether me being female or just my emotions but, this poster is very intense with the mother reaching out to her sons while holding babies. the dark cast over this poster shows how distraught the mother feels and what emotion the poster is trying to convey: sadness and heart brokenness. the feelings that the artist is trying to make people feel sad and very sad for this mother that is losing her babies. the artist is trying to make people feel empathy for this mother and since no one wants this for anyone then they will feel very persuaded to buy more liberty bonds.

poster 2:
this poster again shows another women looking heartbroken that her family member is overseas fighting for us. this poster portrays many different images of the american flag blending into the ocean while she is pointing across the ocean and holding her hand towards you to put money in. with the bright red cross behind the women makes you think, she is christian, i am christian so i need to buy more liberty bonds. this artist is trying to make people feel bad that while those soldiers are fighting overseas for our safety/protection, we are sitting at home safe not doing anything to help them and buying liberty bonds will help the soldiers.

poster 4:
in this poster it is talking about when all the immigrants first came over to america for the "american dream", i mean the poster literally says "remember your first thrill of american liberty?". i mean it is literally guilting the people who read this poster to buy liberty bonds because you know the thrill of american liberty. the artist made the immigrants looking scared/excited to be coming on a boat, passing the statue of liberty so that they know they are in america. the artist wants the immigrants to feel bad that they were allowed to stay in america and that they need to do "your duty" to buy more liberty bonds. i mean the artist deliberately puts "your duty" in massive print and in a dark color to guilt the observer into buying more liberty bonds.

um to be honest i don't think it's right for the government to be using our money to persuade us to use more of our money to buy stuff for the government. i think it's a little twisted to be honest.

since it was our first world war, it was very scary to go across the sea, where we haven't been before, so the government thought that if they had more money for support, then we wouldn't have to worry about falling hard on the grounds of war, more like we fall onto a nice cushion of liberty bonds.

my posters


thanks for reading!!
xoxo ellie