Montclair Film Montclair, NJ
Leland Melvin
Former NASA Astronaut; Former NFL Player
The Space Race— Turning science fiction into science fact
Program Description
NASA Astronaut Leland Melvin leads a post-film conversation about his journey to become an astronaut, and how his and the other film subjects’ science fiction fantasies became science fact.
Presented At
Montclair Film Montclair, NJ
Film Synopsis
Explores the experiences of the first Black astronauts through decades of archive film and interviews in a reflective illumination on the burden of breaking barriers.
THE SPACE RACE weaves together the stories of Black astronauts seeking to break the bonds of social injustice to reach for the stars, including Guion Bluford, Ed Dwight and Charles Bolden, among many others. In THE SPACE RACE, directors Diego Hurtado de Mendoza and Lisa Cortés profile the pioneering Black pilots, scientists and engineers who joined NASA to serve their country in space, even as their country failed to achieve equality for them back on Earth. From 1963, when the assassination of JFK thwarted Captain Ed Dwight’s quest to reach the moon, to 2020, when the echoes of the civil unrest sparked by the killing of George Floyd reached the International Space Station, the story of African Americans at NASA is a tale of world events colliding with the aspirations of uncommon men. The bright dreams of Afrofuturism become reality in THE SPACE RACE, turning science fiction into science fact and forever redefining what “the right stuff” looks like, giving us new heroes to celebrate and a fresh history to explore.
Photo credit: National Geographic Documentary Films
About the Speaker
Leland Melvin is an engineer, educator, former NASA astronaut and NFL wide receiver. He served on board the space shuttle Atlantis as a mission specialist on missions STS-122 (2008) and STS-129 (2009), helping to construct the International Space Station. Upon hanging up his space boots, Melvin led NASA Education and co-chaired the White House’s Federal Coordination in STEAM Education Task Force, developing the nation’s five-year STEM education plan.