Themes Of ' Hidden Figures Directed By Theodore Melfi

Movies and entertainment outlets speak volumes about the current state of a nation’s culture. Cinematic creations in the United States allow small voices to be heard and controversial issues to be addressed. However, a repetitive and monumental issue continues to be addressed, yet continues to persist in our 21st century culture, racial inequalities. Since the inception of the United States, black men and women alike have been disenfranchised at the hands of the “white man” in America. Instead of continuing the conversation today, the issue is continually silenced referencing the successes and achievements of the Civil Rights Movement in the 20th century. Nonetheless, an unfortunate reality looms upon this great land; racially based systems and structures continue to exist in 2015 the in United States. This paper synthesizes three films focused on racial inequalities in different time periods. Separate but Equal (1991), Selma (2015), and Crash (2005) illustrate how influential the Civil War amendments are, while serving as an uncanny reminder of how the racial prejudices during the 20th century continue to exist in our great nation today. Needless to say our nation has made great strides, but still has a long way to go.

Principally, the movie amazingly brings awareness of the structural racism in the government institutions through the wealth of a family. The monetary value of each household can impact life opportunities and outcomes. Many non-whites had their opportunity for a better lifestyle taken from them when our social institution favored whites by giving them more

The concept art imitates life is crucial to film directors who express their views on political and social issues in film. In regard to film studies, race is a topic rare in many films. Like America, many films simply refuse to address this topic for various reasons. However, more recently, Jordan Peele’s 2017 box office hit Get Out explicates contemporary race relations in America. In the form of an unconventional comedy horror, Get Out is intricate in its depiction of white liberal attitudes towards African Americans. In short, Get Out suggests a form of covert racism existing in a post- Jim Crow era. Similarly, Eduardo Bonilla- Silva’s book Racism Without Racists acknowledges the contemporary system of racism or “new racism,” a system

The films, Remember The Titans and The Sapphires are both discovering significant social messages of racial conflict. With these messages and the techniques used in both films they have resulted in two powerful films that highlight racial discrimination. This essay will explore the relationship between the filmmaking and the social messages it is trying to highlight, as well as the similarities, differences and techniques shared between both films

Both Laura Mulvey and bell hooks describe the idea of the “gaze” in film. In both of the theories presented by Mulvey and hooks, the “gaze” is the way in which viewers are subjected to a particular perspective because of their social standing. In Mulvey’s case, she argues that the “gaze” in which the audience is forced into is that of the “male gaze” while hooks argues a more nuanced “gaze” including the “oppositional gaze”. While some of Mulvey’s argument is accurate, hooks argues that it leaves out important other factors, in particular, race. Both arguments have many similarities and differences, and can be seen exemplified in many films, such as Spike Lee’s She’s Gotta Have It.

Hidden Figures, directed by Theodore Melfi, is a movie set in the 1960’s which follows the story of three African-American women who face discrimination amongst their society. Furthermore, Twelve Angry Men, set in the 1950’s, written by Reginald Rose, creates an injustice against a poor slum boy who is discriminated and face prejudices due to his low social class. Through these texts were able to see the prejudices society has placed among us and in order to improve this we need to speak up and fight these discriminatory concepts to create change. Both texts are set in a time of segregation and discrimination which causes a regression against the underprivileged, so we need to demolish these prejudices in order to advance and progress as a society. Minorities need to speak up for change as their voices are better suited to help other minorities fight for a change rather than the majority fight for them all the time. For a change to be created we need to be firm and unnerving about the change we want to create, to construct progression, because, to devise change in society we need to create it ourselves and declare the change we want in society.

The use of various camera techniques such as canted frames, low-angled, high-angled and close up shots, as well as camera distance, enhances the struggle between the characters. The use of such techniques not only allows the audience to get an extensive insight into the many different characters, but also helps us understand the relationships between them and how all of these factors contribute to the overarching theme of racism in the film. The use of these camera rapid movements

In Liberated Threads: Black Women, Style, and The Global Politics of the Soul, Tanisha Ford examines the phenomenon where African American women adopt qualities of traditional African dress to add an extra complexity to activism. Their image became an important factor in

The motion picture tackles difficult issues of marginalization of race, and discrimination of gender, rendering the women’s point of view to the forefront alongside racial discrimination. Although both groups are arranged together according to race, there is segregation in the familial unit between men and women. It is through overcoming this boundary and establishing unity between the oppressed, the marginalized are empowered to carry out their picketing.

Ever since its emergence in the early twentieth century, television has been used to manifest cultural and societal values. I argue that in the United States, Hollywood’s ongoing depiction of racist aesthetics has become the prime method for cultures to falsely portray people of color to it’s counter cultured audience. Such aesthetics, interpreted by overly emphasized mannerisms, often emerging from stereotypes, establish false interpretations of people of color and their role within American society. In this way, racist aesthetics, made visible through characters like Maria in the 1961 movie West Side Story , build on the embracement of such portrayals as a means of adjusting to the social and psychological discomfort that arises among melting pot populations.

The setting of the movie greatly influenced the issues, actions, conflicts, and consequences the characters faced. The opening of the film “Hidden Figures” takes place in White Sulfur Springs, West Virginia in the year 1926 when Katherine Coleman was just a sixth grader. The following scenes takes place in Hampton, Virginia of 1961. The film sets the struggle for equal rights against the backdrop of the space race recounting a time when even at NASA, African-Americans were segregated from their white counterparts. However, if the story had taken place in a different country or a different time period, the nonmaterial culture would have been completely different. Nonmaterial culture is “a group’s way of thinking (including its beliefs, values,

[1] Before I start this essay, I feel the need to remind the reader that I find slavery in all its forms to be an oppressive and terrible institution, and I firmly believe that for centuries (including this one) bigotry is one of the most terrible stains on our civilization. The views I intend to express in the following essay are in no way meant to condone the practices of slavery or racism; they are meant only to evaluate and interpret the construction of slavery in film.

Quentin Tarantino’s film Jackie Brown, released in 1997, challenges the pervasive stereotyping of not only blacks but specifically black women. Nowhere is the cinematic devaluation of African Americans more evident than in images of black women which, in the history of cinematography, the white ideal for female beauty has overlooked. The portrayal of black women as the racial Extra has been fabricated through many semblances in the history of American film. Film scholars and feminists alike have long been plagued with lament for the negativity and stereotyping that sticks with black women in American cinema. In this paper, I will argue that Jackie Brown highlights and stresses the racial variance of the female African American protagonist,

Katherine G. Johnson, the main character in Hidden Figures, looked beyond through working long hard hours and easily tackling problems due to the color of her skin. Despite these obstacles, this woman strikes the viewers by constantly enjoying every second of her journey and remaining respectful to those who don’t return it. Johnson’s powerful dialogue discloses the confidence within herself and how content she is with her actions. Katherine Johnson knew who she was clearly stated in her line,” I don’t have a feeling of inferiority. Never had.

Motif in the film can be considered as an item which helps reveal the theme of the film that repeated several times throughout the film. “Racial discrimination” was shown throughout the whole movie as playing a supporting role in order to develop Owens’ characterization. In this movie, the