The new movie Hidden Figures, which portrays the struggles and triumphs of three African-American female mathematicians working for NASA in the 1960s, opened in the US yesterday and is getting excellent reviews:

• Why ‘Hidden Figures’ is a Movie Everyone Should Watch – Space.com
• ‘Hidden Figures’ may feature NASA’s history, but it resonates in the present – LA Times
• Hidden Figures is the perfect space race movie | Ars Technica
• ‘Hidden Figures’ Ted Melfi Worked With NASA, Families To Bring A-Game | Deadline
• In ‘Hidden Figures’ 3 African American Women Help NASA Win 60s Space Race – VOA News
• REVIEW: ‘Hidden Figures’ a celebration of NASA’s unsung space race heroes – Washington Times

Here is the official trailer:

Here is a new 20th Century Fox video with some background and brief statements from some of the actors:

This video shows a NASA panel discussion about the women and history depicted in the movie:

NASA kicked off a yearlong centennial celebration for its Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, with events Dec. 1 highlighting the critical work done by the African American women of Langley’s West Computing Unit, a story told in the book and upcoming movie “Hidden Figures”. During a NASA education event that was streamed to schools across the country, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, Film director Ted Melfi, NASA Chief Historian Bill Barry, who consulted on the film, and NASA Modern Figure Julie Williams-Byrd, an electro-optics engineer for the Space Mission Analysis Branch at Langley, discussed the work of past and present NASA figures benefits humanity and enable future long-duration human and robotic exploration into deep space, including the agency’s Journey to Mars.

(The video opens with the movie trailer. The event starts at about 3:05.)

Here is a short interview with mathematician Katherine Johnson, now 98, whose work at NASA was a focus of the movie:

The movie is based on the research of Margot Lee Shetterly, who wrote the just released book, Hidden Figures. (More about the book at Hidden Figures — Margot Lee Shetterly: Research. Write. Repeat.) She founded the The Human Computer Project, “Inspiring STEM stories from history”, which is dedicated to researching the role of women at NASA and its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) .

This video shows a presentation given by Shetterly in March 2014 at NASA Langley Center in Virginia:

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