Aleksander Xhuvani Gender Studies

Friday, January 12, 2018

20 January 2018
Film review
Lorena Gjeli

Hidden figures

Hidden figures is an American film which took place in 10 Dec 2016. It is directed by Theodore Melfi. Hidden figures is the story of three intelligent women who are very smart and do a great job but others don't give credits to their work only because they are women and they are coloured (black).

It's a movie which shows the American life in '60 when black people were discriminated. They had their own buses, schools, bathrooms and even their personal things to eat and drink. Those three women, who worked at NASA as mathematicians, changed everything. At first they were considered as weak and not able to the same job as men there. Firstly because they were women and secondly because they were black( coloured). Katherine, who was the the smartest of them, was a mother and father for her kids and also was fighting for her rights to be heard by showing her strong potential and her smartness. It was because of her and her two friends that John Glen ( astronaut) was able to lunched into orbit.

It is worth to see it because it brings the issue of human rights and sacrifice. Meaning that all are the same no matter their skin colour or their gender. This film inspires all of us and learns us to fight for our rights. It is a pitty to see all of those men in that movie behaving on that way. Not believing to a women abilities and smartness only because she is a woman and black.

We all are born equal and should be treated as such.

Movie Review
Realda Basha

"Hidden Figures"
Hidden figures is a story of brilliance, but not of ego, based on true events. Set in 1960s Virginia, the film centres on a trio (not a lone heroine) three pioneering African-American women whose calculations for NASA were the success of several space missions, including John Dlenn's successful orbit of the Earth
Katherine (played by Taraji P. Henson) is the film's first protagonist and gets the most screen time. She gets the opportunity to join the big league were she is a superlative mathematician, but too bad for her, no 'coloured' man had ever been selected for it, let alone a coloured woman. There is a separate empty kettle for her tea, and not a separate bathroom for her, so she has to run to the other end of the campus, half-a-mile away to the 'coloured ladies room'. Despite all these challenges, her brilliance as a mathematician makes sure she shines among the white men colleagues. Dorothy managed the 'coloured computer' team and became the first blach supervisor at NASA, and Mary became an aerospace engineer. These women, were the key to sending a man into space and hence launching a journey to later reach the moon.
This is a heart-warming film and not one to be missed if you have been running low on inspiration of life. Let the stories of three geniuses tell you how a woman, despite several struggles, can still cross the finish line. While it may be difficult to see her in the crowd, we know she is there, running and leaping over the barriers. In good time, we will be able to see her and she won't stay hidden anymore

12.01.2018

Aleksander Xhuvani Elbasan

English Language

Grup A

Anxhela Kicka

Movie review: Hidden figures

Hidden figures is a 2016 drama movie directed by Theodore Melfi and written by Melfi and Alison Schroeder based on the book of the same name. The title figure has a double meaning ;firstly the numbers related to her work(mathematician), and figure as an individual , because the protagonist Katherine who always stays backstage and remains hidden.

The whole story of this movie is based on real events .The “reality” of this film is shown to us due to the stars who convey us great emotions. The protagonists of this movie are Taraji P. Henson as Katherine Globe Johnson, Octavia Spencer as Dorothy Vaughan , Janelle Monde as Mary Jackson, Kevin Costner as Al Harrison , Kirsten Dunst as Vivian Mitchell ,Jim Parsons as Paul Stafford and Glen Powell as John Glenn.

The events are based on what happened in 1961. The three female protagonists : Katherine,Mary and Dorothy are three friends,who do not get scared of the discrimantion they experience and are ready to do the impossible in order to accomplish their goals and dreams. Katherine,a genious at mathematics coworks with Mary and Dorothy. The NASA which tries to send American astronauts into space needs geniuses in order to achieve this. So, Al Harrison’s Space Task Group need specialists in oders to make it possible. Katherine was going to became the first black woman in the team. So did she. She worked hard,proved them all wrong as she managed to show off all her skills s it concerned analytic geometry. She managed to work under hurtful conditions,as the then society was a segregated one. Everything was separated for black people especially women. They could not be at the same place with white women.

The three women faced numerous problems due to this fact and this was the barrier to their success. However, they never give up. One thing , that it was a real disadvantage for them is that women were supposed not to be able to work on one of the STEM fields. So here there is an obvious discrimination ; that women are not capable and able to do these woks. Mary’s desire is to become an engineer, and Dorothy’s is to become supervisor. They try a lot , but what prevents them are two facts the colour and the gender. However their courage , bravery, desire and group spirit make them to achieve what they want. But never a man helped those women or believed on them. Katherine’s coworkers were all men and as the only women there they were to support and help her. But this never happened. On the contrary, Paul , a colleague of her,sabotaged her a lot of times , and all of them discriminated her all the time in all the situations. It is easily understandable that there is no partnership between the two genders at all. However there is a man ; Al Harrison, who by the time he understood her skills, he always supported her despite the factst hat she was black and a woman.But from the other side partnership among women it is in its highest level.They work together as a whole group.Dorothy gives the great example. These women’s good gatekeeper is their untired spirit and hope. What happens in the end is that the three of them achieve their dreams. Katherine becomes the first black woman in NASA , Mary the first black woman engineer and Dorothy the becomes the first black woman supervisor.

All in all, I would strongly recommend seeing this movie. It conveys two messages.To be against the colour and gender discrimination and to respect the human’s right. Hidden figures shows the glass ceiling that exists in the female’s dreams can be broken. No matter of what colour or gender you are,everything is possible. Hard work and belief in what you are doing really helps.

Film review
Hidden Figures
Armonela Dulja

Hidden Figures is an incredible drama film directed by Theodore Melfi in December 2016. The main characters of this film are three colored women: Katherine Johnson ( played by Taraji Henson) , Dorothy Vaughan ( played by Octavia Spencer ) and Mary Jackson ( played by Janelle Monae ) .They work at NASA where they find a lot of difficulties due to their color . Despite all these difficulties these women made their dreams come true and they realized their aims.
This film is that kind of film that treats the problems that a colored women face in her everyday life firstly, because of being a women and secondly, because she is black. These three women have a dream , have an aim to accomplish but they always had obstacles in realizing their dreams because of their colors but at the and they did it. They never gave up. At the beginning of the film Katherine was put to assist Al Harrison in his group and to give her skills in analytic geometry. For her it was a challenge being there because she was the first black woman on the team. She had to face the indifference of the others in the team. She was not allowed to touch anything and to go anywhere where the others “white” people touch or go . Al Harrison was the one who supported her when he found out that she had to run a lot of miles away to go to the colored section and also after that he allowed her to be included in the meetings. Also another person who supported her was an astronaut named Glen that requests she to be called back in her position to calculate some other numbers that they wanted to be sure. So as the time passes she become the most important employee there.
Dorothy wanted to be the supervisor of NASA. When she saw that electronic computers would replace human computers she went to a public library to take a book to learn abot these computers where the librarian pull her out for being in the whites section. Despite this fact she realized to take the book and taught herself everything about how to work with these computers and then she officially became a supervisor of NASA.
Mary’s dream was to become an engineer but she had to attend classes in a white school and she thought that she would never realize it but it happened the opposite. She went to a court and convinced the judge to give her permission to attend classes in a “white” school. She realized her dream and become an engineer. The only one to supported her was her housband and he believed in her.
I really enjoyed watching this film. If I will have the possibility I will see it again and again. I firmly believe that all should see it because you will be attracted by it and interested to see what’s going next , what is going to happen in the end . I really felt a little bit sad and pity about these women due to the difficulties that they dealt with in their work or in their everyday life just because they are colored but when I saw that they had a happy life in the then I felt happy too. The message that this film gives to us is very clear: WE ARE ALL EQUAL despite the nation, the color of our skin , the gender , the language or just because simply being a women or a man. And as Al Harrison says: “We all pee the same color”.