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Woman In Motion: Nichelle Nichols, Star Trek and The Remaking of NASA
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As part of today’s First Contact Day celebrations thrown by Paramount+, the streamer has announced that Woman in Motion: Nichelle Nichols, Star Trek and the Remaking of NASA will begin streaming on the service on Thursday, June 3. Honoring the life and career of Star Trek groundbreaker Nichols, the news was announced by host Mica Burton, moderator of the “Women in Motion” panel.
Nichols is probably best known for her role as Nyota Uhura on Star Trek: The Original Series and the subsequent film sequels. But what Woman in Motion focuses on is when Nichols, in 1977, began a campaign to bring diversity to NASA in real life. Directed by Todd Thompson (The Highwayman, PRE FAB!), the documentary follows Nichols as she forms a company named Women in Motion, Inc., and proceeds to recruit over 8,000 African American, Asian and Latino women and men for the space agency.
Featuring interviews with Neil deGrasse Tyson, George Takei, Pharrell Williams, Martin Luther King III, Al Sharpton, Vivica A. Fox, Water Koenig, Rod Roddenberry, Michael Dorn, Guy Bluford, Charles Bolden, Ivor Dawson, Frederik Gregory and Benjamin Crump, the doc chronicles how Nichols’ work with NASA was not only transformative in the ’70s, but is still creates positive ramifications today.
In the trailer, a number of [checks notes] men… Huh. Anyway, a number of men, including deGrasse Tyson, talk about Nichols’ impact. Using interviews ranging over the past few decades, Nichols herself also discusses how she was recruited, and how it ended up taking her from science fiction, to science fact. That includes Mae Jemison, the first female African American astronaut in space, who arguably would never have made it to the space shuttle if it wasn’t for Nichols’ work.
The documentary first debuted in theaters earlier this year, before becoming available on Video on Demand. You can watch the trailer above, and learn a whole lot more about her impact when Woman in Motion debuts on June 3 on Paramount+.