Woman in Motion: Nichelle Nichols, Star Trek and the Remaking of NASA film will play for one night only
Nichelle Nichols spent three years playing Lt Uhura on Star Trek: The Original Series, but it was a role that would go on to have lasting impact in shaping our world and changing the landscape of NASA. In 1977, Nichols parlayed her work as a highly-notable actor into a career geared toward helping to bring more diversity to the agency. She formed the company Woman in Motion, Inc. and through that company, she recruited more than 8,000 African-American, Asian, and Latino women and men to work at NASA. Some of those recruits included Guion Bluford (the first African-American astronaut), Sally Ride (the first female American astronaut), Judith Resnik (one of the original set of female astronauts), and Ronald McNair (the second African-American astronaut.)
Now, a documentary takes a look at Nichols and the recruiting program to hire people of color and women for the agency in the 1970s and 1980s. On February 2, 2021, Woman in Motion: Nichelle Nichols, Star Trek and the Remaking of NASA will air for one night only via Fathom Events. The documentary includes appearances by Martin Luther King III, Rod Roddenberry, Michael Dorn, Vivica A. Fox, Walter Koenig, George Takei, and more.
The director of the documentary, Todd Thompson said that Nichols helped create the brighter future we’re living in by saying that space exploration is for everyone and called Woman in Motion “a great American story with incredible global impact.”
Fathom Events CEO Ray Nutt called Nichols a pioneer and a role model and said that Fathom Events was proud to bring her story to cinemas. He added that “it is an honor to have Woman in Motion as the debut film in the inaugural Fathom Events Celebrates Black History Month series.”
Tickets are now available here, and if you do attend, don’t leave after the event as there will be a behind-the-scenes documentary about the making of Woman in Motion as well as more interviews with Nichelle Nichols and other guests, deleted scenes, and additional footage.