Hidden Figures

Hook, finding one’s place

Guiding thread: Finding one’s place in the world · Sub-thread: Giving and receiving, we can only give and receive from a place.

Finding one’s place in the world · Young people today

Katherine, Dorothy and Mary are told where to sit, work and study, but they refuse to stay in that place. Today, how do young people get involved when they feel they are not given a place?

Sentence starters

• Like Mary Jackson, some young people…
• Young people get involved when they feel… because…
• Joining a group or an association can give young people…
• Katherine claims her place by…; today, young people…

Visionary filmmakers. In 2016, director Theodore Melfi put on the big screen three women whose work at NASA had been left out of the history books for decades.

Talk about the characters and about young people in general, not about yourself.

Then, a second question:

Why do some people who do essential work stay invisible? Think of jobs in a hospital, a lab, a space agency or a stadium: who do we see, and who do we not see?

The film in three lines

Virginia, 1961. At NASA’s Langley Research Center, Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson work as “human computers” in a segregated unit. As the USA races the Soviet Union into space, their mathematics, their courage and their friendship help put astronaut John Glenn into orbit.

Your mission: watch the official trailer, analyse its film language, discover the real history with NASA sources, then speak: present, debate, review.

Start with the trailerFilm study sheet

Film credits

Film language, with examples from the official trailer

Timecodes are approximate (± 2 s). Pause the trailer and check each example yourself.

Shots

• 0:26tracking two-shot through the windscreen: the three women in their car, escorted by a police car
• 0:50long shot: Katherine on a ladder in front of a giant blackboard, she looks small, the equations look huge
• 1:26close-up on Katherine’s face and glasses: concentration
• 1:02group shot: the West Area computers cheer together

Angles

• 0:14the police officer is filmed slightly from below: authority
• 1:50eye-level shot of the NASA managers around a table: who has the power in the room?

Camera movement

• 0:26tracking shot: the camera moves with the car on the road
• 1:58the camera follows the rocket as it rises

Lighting & colour

• 0:06bright natural light and pastel colours (turquoise car, 1960s dresses): high-key optimism
• 0:42dark background for the Sputnik satellite: the threat of the Soviet Union

Sound

• 0:30music with a strong beat starts under the dialogue (non-diegetic score)
• 1:58the roar of the rocket at lift-off (diegetic sound)

Editing

• 1:34intertitle on black: “Based on the untold true story”
• 2:06intertitles: “Three women” / “would change history”
• 1:58fast montage before the title: lift-off, faces, control room

Step into the period

Historical landmarks

• 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson: the Supreme Court accepts “separate but equal”.
• 1941 Executive Order 8802 bans racial discrimination in the defense industry.
• 1943 Dorothy Vaughan joins the Langley laboratory (NACA).
• 1949 Dorothy Vaughan becomes head of West Area Computing, NACA’s first Black supervisor.
• 1951 Mary Jackson joins West Area Computing.
• 1953 Katherine Johnson starts at Langley.
• 1954 Brown v. Board of Education: segregation in public schools is unconstitutional.
• 1957 4 October: the Soviet Union launches Sputnik 1.
• 1958 NASA is created; segregated facilities at Langley are abolished; Mary Jackson becomes NASA’s first Black female engineer.
• 1961 12 April: Yuri Gagarin orbits Earth. 5 May: Alan Shepard, first American in space.
• 1962 20 February: John Glenn orbits Earth three times in Friendship 7.
• 1964 Civil Rights Act: discrimination in public places becomes illegal.
• 1969 Apollo 11: humans walk on the Moon.
• 2015 Katherine Johnson receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
• 2016 Margot Lee Shetterly publishes Hidden Figures; the film is released.

Sources: NASA, Katherine Johnson · NASA, Dorothy Vaughan · NASA, Mary W. Jackson

Official trailer (20th Century Studios)

Official channel: 20th Century Studios · https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wfrDhgUMGI

Before you watch

Look at the four photos in the Overview tab. Predict: what is the job of these women? What problem might they face in 1961?

First viewing, global understanding

1. Where are the three women at the very beginning? What has happened to their car?
2. Who arrives, and how does the situation change when they say they work for NASA?
3. What does the US president demand after the launch of the Russian satellite?
4. Which team needs “a computer”? Who is chosen?
5. What is the astronaut’s name?
6. What happens at the very end of the trailer?

Second viewing, listen for the exact words

Complete these lines from the trailer.

1. ≈0:52“This is about inventing the ___, because without it we’re not going anywhere.”
2. ≈1:09“If you were a white male, would you wish to be an ___?”, “I wouldn’t have to. I’d ___ be one.”
3. ≈1:23“Just make that pencil move as fast as your ___ does.”
4. ≈1:41“There’s no ___ for a man circling the Earth either, sir.”
5. ≈1:44“Every time we have a chance to get ahead, they move the ___ line.”

Read the images

Use the Film sheet tab (vocabulary + examples). Then pause the trailer at three moments and analyse them.

Micro-task

Choose one frame. Write 5 sentences: what we see (2), how it is filmed (2), what it means (1).

The Space Race

On 4 October 1957 the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite. For the USA, it was a shock. NASA was created in 1958. On 12 April 1961 Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit Earth; on 20 February 1962 John Glenn became the first American to do it, aboard Friendship 7.

Segregation at Langley

NASA explains that newly hired Black women mathematicians had to work in a separate unit, “West Area Computing”, and “were originally required to use separate dining and bathroom facilities”. Dorothy Vaughan led the unit from 1949; segregated facilities were abolished in 1958 when the NACA became NASA.

Read and react, Mary Jackson

NASA tells us that Mary Jackson needed special permission from the City of Hampton to attend engineering classes held at a then-segregated high school. She completed the courses and in 1958 became NASA’s first Black female engineer. In 1979 she chose a lower grade to work for equal opportunity at Langley.

1. What obstacle did Mary Jackson face, and how did she overcome it?
2. Why do you think she left engineering in 1979?
3. Which word best describes her: patient, determined, rebellious? Justify.

Read more: NASA, Mary W. Jackson · NASA, Dorothy Vaughan

Fact or film?

The film condenses history. NASA explains that Glenn’s request was part of the preflight checklist; in the film, it happens at the last minute, during the launch countdown. The character Al Harrison is invented: a composite of several real managers. Discuss: is it acceptable for a film “based on a true story” to change details?

Task, portrait in 60 seconds

Choose one character. Describe her or him to the class without saying the name; the class guesses.

1 · Continuous speech, 2 minutes

Present the trailer to a class that has never seen it: context, characters, film language, your opinion.

Success criteria: 4 parts, 3 film words, 1 quotation, linking words (first, then, however, finally).

2 · Interaction, the meeting room

Pairs. A: Katherine asks to attend the briefing. B: Paul Stafford refuses. Use arguments from the trailer. Switch roles.

3 · Debate, “Should films about real people be 100% accurate?”

Two teams, 90 seconds each, then free exchange.

4 · Film review podcast, 1 min 30 (timed)

Write

B1 (2nde) · 150 to 180 words: You are a journalist in February 1962. Write a short article about Friendship 7 and the women who checked the numbers.

B2 (1re) · 220 to 250 words: “Progress in science always depends on progress in justice.” Discuss, using Hidden Figures and the NASA documents.

Checklist: title · paragraphs · a quotation with its source · past tenses (B1) / concession + nuance (B2).

What this film study trains

• Listening: trailer questions (Watch tab).
• Reading: NASA biographies (Context tab).
• Speaking (continuous): 2-minute presentation.
• Speaking (interaction): meeting-room role-play, debate.
• Writing: article / essay.

Project, “Hidden figures” exhibition wall

In groups, create a poster or a slide for a class exhibition about a scientist who did essential work out of the spotlight (choose from NASA’s pages: Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, or another NASA pioneer). Include: dates, achievements, one real quote with its source, one public-domain image with its credit. Present it in 2 minutes.

Teacher notes

• Level: 2nde (B1) and 1re (B2). Rated PG: suitable for all classes.
• Programme axes (BO n° 22, 29 May 2025): 2nde « Le passé dans le présent », « Défis et transitions » · 1re « Diversité et inclusion », « Innovations scientifiques et responsabilité » (objet d’étude « À qui appartient l’espace ? »).
• Trailer: official 20th Century Studios channel, checked by oEmbed.
• Images: NASA, public domain.
• Students speak about the characters and the history, never about their own situation.

Full teacher page (FR) →