Hidden Figures – Peter Samuelson Starcatcher Award

Hidden Figures is the incredible untold story of Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer) and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe)—brilliant African-American women working at NASA, who served as the brains behind one of the greatest operations in history: the launch of astronaut John Glenn into orbit, a stunning achievement that restored the nation’s confidence, turned around the Space Race, and galvanized the world. The visionary trio crossed all gender and race lines to inspire generations to dream big. It is in theaters on January 6, 2017.
Director: Theodore Melfi
Screenplay by: Allison Schroeder and Theodore Melfi, based on the book by Margot Lee Shetterly
Producers: Donna Gigliotti, Peter Chernin, Jenno Topping, Pharrell Williams, Theodore Melfi
Actors: Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monáe, Kirsten Dunst, Jim Parsons, Mahershala Ali, Aldis Hodge, Glen Powell, Kimberly Quinn and Kevin Costner
Raw Science TV presented the first Peter Samuelson Starcatcher Award for pro-social media to 20th Century Fox and the film Hidden Figures in the Zanuck Theater at Fox Studios on Saturday, December 20, 2016. Peter Samuelson is a producer of Revenge of the Nerds. The movie is a classic in the lexicon of film and was instrumental in popularizing “the nerd” in the 1980’s. There would be no Big Bang Theory without Revenge of the Nerds! Samuelson gave a rousing speech at the 3rd annual Raw Science Film Festival about popularizing the marginalized nerd worldwide.
The Peter Samuelson Starcatcher Award was named by Dr. Sarlyn Mark of the iGIANT series of roundtables that bring together stakeholders from industry, academia, and government to discuss the process of designing gender/sex into products, programs, policies, or protocols. She highlighted Samuelson’s lifelong achievements in pro-social media, entrepreneurship, and philanthropy including Participant Media, Media Institute for Social Change (MISC) at the University of Southern California, Starlight Starbright Children’s Foundation, Everyone Deserves a Roof (EDAR), and ASPIRE, the Academy for Social Purpose in Responsible Entertainment www.aspirelab.org.
CONGRATULATIONS HIDDEN FIGURES!
Video Trailers: Courtesy of YouTube
– Keri Kukral @kerikukral