Jason Collins ’97 and Performing Arts Teacher Ted Walch discussed the movie “Hidden Figures” and what it means to be a groundbreaker in the film industry at Cinema Sunday.

Collins said he choose to discuss the movie “Hidden Figures” because of the messages it tells about diversity and equity in American history.

“I really wanted a movie that highlighted who I am, diversity, inclusion and acceptance all those things that I stand for, ” Collins said.

Walch said this movie was specifically unique in the way that the actors worked and related to each other.

“Actors are good people, I’ve worked with a lot of them in my life,” Walch said. But there is something about the cast of this movie was a family, that these people liked working together and they believed in the stories they were telling, ”

Based on a true story set in a time of race and gender inequality, the film Hidden Figures follows the story of three females’ achievements during the U.S. and Russian race to put the first man to orbit.

Collins said one of the most impactful things about Hidden Figures was the emotions it made him feel while watching it.

“One of the best things about the movie is that you feel all the emotions whether it is even the opening scene or the end of the movie,” Collins said. “I went back and forth from feeling pride to being angry, angry that they (the 3 women) had to work so hard and have so many obstacles that they had to go through. You feel all these emotions and that’s something that a great movie does” Collins said.

Walch said the title “Hidden Figures” symbolizes the issues of women’s rights and discrimination.

“One other thing about the film is that the title says it all and can be interpreted in so many different ways,” Walch said. That math often is there but you have to dig those figures out, these figures these women were hidden from us or years and years and years and their story didn’t get told” Ted Walch said.

Coordinator of the Deans Office Lynn Miller said the movie highlights the importance of women’s rights and discrimination during the 1960s.

“Issues of women’s rights and discrimination permeated even a “forward-thinking, technologically advanced organization like NASA,” Miller said. With good humor woven among the drama, Hidden Figures paints a portrait of an important historical episode in US history and the ground-breaking actions of three astounding, ground-breaking people,” Miller said.