ORLANDO, Fla. – A local filmmaker is telling the real story of a Star Trek star bringing diversity to NASA.
“Woman in Motion,” a documentary, is debuting nationwide February 2, including in several Central Florida theaters.
- “Woman in Motion: Nichelle Nichols, Star Trek and the Remaking of NASA” tells the true story of how a sci-fi and pop culture icon influenced space flight forever. Todd Thompson, of Orlando, is the film's director and producer. “[Nichelle Nichols] accomplished something in such a short period of time that literally changed the face of space,” he said.
- The film took five years to make. “We got some incredible access to the Vehicle Assembly Building [at Kennedy Space Center],” Thompson said, adding that additional shots happened near Lake Eola in downtown Orlando.
- “The reality is, NASA kind of used [Nichols'] celebrity to bring astronauts to the space program,” he said. “All they had was white male astronauts.” Nichols had formed a company (Woman In Motion, Inc.), recruiting more than 8,000 African American, Asian and Latino women and men to NASA.
- Nationally-known civil rights attorney Ben Crump (who represented Trayvon Martin's family) was one of the film's writers. “NASA kept saying, we can't find any qualified minorities or women,” Crump said. “Nichelle Nichols said, 'I reject that. I'm going to prove it to you. I'm going to offer so many candidates that you can never ever say again that we don't have qualified people other than white men.'”
- In Central Florida, the film screens at 7 p.m. on February 2 at Universal Cinemark at CityWalk, AMC Altamonte Mall 18, and AMC Disney Springs 24. Full listing of showtimes can be found here.