Film screening: The Space Race – Canadian Black Scientists Network

The Canadian Black Scientists Network, in partnership with the University of Toronto Scarborough, is pleased to present National Geographic’s documentary, The Space Race.

The Space Race uncovers the little-known stories of the first Black pilots, engineers and scientists who became astronauts.

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 (The Redeem Team) and Lisa Cortés (Little Richard: I Am Everything) 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 hidden history to discover. View the trailer here.

All are welcome to this IN PERSON screening!

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