Co-Directors Diego Hurtado de Mendoza & Lisa Cortes talk to The Inside Reel about approach, legacy, perspective and structure in regards to their new documentary film for National Geographic: “The Space Race”.
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00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:03 Back in the day, they were saying that blacks
00:14 are too ignorant to be flying in space.
00:16 I'm smitten to turn up there doing all these wonderful
00:19 things.
00:20 Black history is American history.
00:22 We forget it at our peril.
00:27 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:30 Time is both standstill but also moves forward,
00:36 which is interesting.
00:37 And that's sort of the irony of what the documentary shows.
00:40 Could you talk about sort of the starting point
00:44 as far as the story you want to tell?
00:46 Was it Ed?
00:47 Where did the story begin for both of you
00:50 in order to adequately show sort of this path?
00:54 The story had a very unusual start, if you think about it.
01:00 As we tell the story of African-Americans
01:02 in the space program, the story started in Cuba, of all places,
01:06 with the story of the Cuban cosmonaut,
01:07 Arnaldo Tamayo Mendez, who was not just the first Latino
01:10 to fly in space, but the first person of color.
01:13 And so the story really was how the Soviet Union
01:15 beat the United States at sending the first person
01:18 of color into space.
01:20 And that revealed the racism that existed in the US,
01:23 where the Soviets had no Black population.
01:26 And so that got us really interested.
01:28 And that's when Lisa and I fell in love
01:29 with the story of what happened, what was going on in the US.
01:33 And then quickly went from talking
01:36 to Ed and one of the astronauts.
01:38 And they would all invariably have the same answer.
01:41 It's, I'm willing to participate,
01:43 but in order to understand my story,
01:44 you must go and talk to these other astronauts that
01:47 either came before me or after.
01:49 And so the story quickly became a story of legacy
01:53 and how these incredible individuals are all connected.
01:56 And despite us thinking of them as heroes,
02:00 they look at themselves as, you know, they did their job,
02:03 but they were there thanks to the people that came before them.
02:05 And all they wanted to do is make sure
02:07 that others would come behind them.
02:08 [MUSIC PLAYING]
02:12 In the early days of the civil rights movement,
02:16 NASA wanted to show that they were
02:18 engaged in equality for all.
02:20 I was told by friends and enemies alike,
02:23 you're 20 years too soon, buddy.
02:25 If you qualify and would like to be an astronaut,
02:28 now is the time.
02:30 This is your NASA.
02:31 I don't think America or anybody knew.
02:33 I was a body, in a way.
02:36 Everybody's mentor to mentor to mentor, which is great.
02:39 You know, I went down to see Artemis launch at Kennedy.
02:43 And, you know, hearing of the fact
02:45 that Victor Glover is on the thing,
02:48 it's about he was influenced by Leland.
02:50 He was influenced by Ron, influenced by Ed.
02:53 So legacy is such an important thing,
02:55 but only if people understand the story that
02:58 took to get them there and the setbacks that occurred.
03:01 Could you talk about that?
03:02 Because these are hard stories, especially Ed's,
03:04 to get him to talk about, probably.
03:06 I'm not sure if that--
03:08 how much you wanted to sort of push into those stories
03:12 and how much you wanted to let sort of--
03:13 because history is written by the people in power,
03:16 unfortunately.
03:17 And so documentaries are the way to tell the story the way
03:20 it actually happened.
03:23 Well, you know, Ed is the internal spine
03:27 of our storytelling, looking at his journey and the ability
03:34 to triumph against all of the barriers and issues that
03:39 came his way.
03:41 When we started this project, Diego and I
03:43 talked a lot about perspective.
03:46 Who's telling the story?
03:48 And as you saw, it is only our participants.
03:52 There are no other outside voices.
03:55 So centering their voices, their stories, recollections
04:01 is a means of addressing the ills of the past
04:05 when they might have been, and in the case of Ed,
04:08 specifically, invisible.
04:11 To give someone agency to recount their history,
04:14 what we found with Ed is that he had a lot of great stories,
04:20 and he also has an incredibly positive perspective
04:27 on where the journey has taken him,
04:30 and that he is recognized now as a space pioneer,
04:34 brings him great joy.
04:36 But then he is also recognized as a world-renowned sculptor,
04:40 brings him equal joy.
04:42 Station, this is Houston.
04:43 Are you ready for the event?
04:46 Houston, this is Station.
04:48 I am ready for the event.
04:49 In the midst of all of this, Victor
04:55 reached out to the black astronauts to have a call.
04:58 I was blown away to see all of these names pop up
05:07 on the screen.
05:08 Mae Jemison, Charlie Bolden, Guy Bluford.
05:11 They were all saying, what can we do for you?
05:13 How can we help you?
05:14 How can we support you?
05:15 And that just-- they were giving me
05:18 exactly what I needed by just being there and fellowship.
05:21 It's interesting, because I like the fact that the way
05:23 inspiration builds has to do with perception in many ways.
05:27 You were talking about perspective,
05:29 but it's also perception.
05:31 I mean, that's why, obviously, Nicole--
05:33 Nikelle Nichols, her aspect of working with NASA,
05:36 even though she knew a lot of the problems,
05:38 she saw past that and said, well,
05:40 this still needs to be done.
05:41 I still need to talk.
05:43 And I love the fact that--
05:45 I forget which one of your interviewees said,
05:47 she was not speaking to everyone.
05:48 She was speaking to me.
05:50 And that's something, as far as education, that's so important.
05:54 Can you talk about the power of that, the power of culture?
05:57 Obviously, the power of bringing out
05:59 aspects of social injustice, but how
06:02 that has to take on a practical effect.
06:04 It can't just be theoretical.
06:05 It has to be practical.
06:08 Well, I think what I always think about,
06:11 the often overused phrase of representation matters,
06:15 what we don't talk about enough is recognition matters.
06:20 Those two have to be working in tandem
06:23 as we're messaging these stories with our astronauts
06:29 specifically.
06:30 That was a really transformational call for me.
06:37 Until the Victor thing happened, I
06:39 wasn't talking to Fred or Guy or the--
06:42 I mean, if I bumped into them, we would maybe say hi
06:44 or whatever.
06:45 But it wasn't like we're having some big legacy discussion.
06:48 And hey, we got your back.
06:49 You can do this.
06:50 It wasn't like that.
06:51 For you, Diego, because it also has to do with--
06:54 you were talking about the aspect of perception,
06:56 but also the aspect of awe.
06:59 Because the thing is that once you're up above the planet,
07:01 I think that will change things for everybody.
07:04 Once we get up into actual full-blown commercial space
07:07 travel, I think once people see the planet
07:10 and how it's not divided, it's one thing,
07:12 would make a lot of difference.
07:14 And that's what I hear repeatedly,
07:15 both in your documentary, but from many astronauts
07:18 I've spoken to.
07:19 I think it's true.
07:20 The sense of awe I think that astronauts inspire in everyone,
07:24 it's outstanding.
07:25 And if you think about it, we always
07:28 had this vision of an astronaut orbiting Earth
07:31 and looking down through one of the windows in their shuttle
07:34 and seeing Earth for all it is as one.
07:37 And the possibilities they're experiencing in space,
07:40 where they're working together, people of all races,
07:43 religions, and they're doing the most advanced,
07:47 most complicated things that humans are doing.
07:49 They're pushing what humans are capable of knowing
07:52 about the universe.
07:54 And they're working together.
07:56 And they're living in space.
07:57 And it works flawlessly.
07:59 And then they look down the window and see Earth.
08:01 And eventually, they have to land back on Earth.
08:04 But they've experienced the possibility,
08:06 the power of what it is to work together without boundaries.
08:09 And then they have to deal with the realities on Earth.
08:12 So that's a very powerful juxtaposition
08:15 that we portray in the film.
08:17 It was imaginary.
08:18 It was a lie.
08:19 Around the same time, there was a Cuban
08:21 who was the first person of color to fly.
08:24 The Soviets made that history.
08:27 Not the United States.
08:30 To see a Black man in space, it would
08:35 have changed things.
08:36 [CHEERING]
08:40 Also, I liked what Diego's saying,
08:42 the power of possibility.
08:44 Because we're still dealing with a lot of things
08:46 that happened back in the '60s, '70s, '80s, '90s.
08:49 It doesn't go away.
08:50 But hopefully, we're moving forward
08:52 in some way, shape, or form.
08:54 Could you talk about the power of possibility
08:56 and that being the next mode of evolution,
08:59 hopefully, on our social system, but also
09:02 in our sort of science system?
09:04 Well, I think our astronauts exemplify this very idea
09:09 of the power of possibility, of how
09:11 a combination of their brilliance,
09:13 their perseverance, their resilience
09:16 has landed them in this very unique space.
09:20 We have to remember that there are only 17 African-American
09:26 and one Afro-Latino person, and that's
09:30 Arnaldo Tamayo-Mendez, who have had the opportunity
09:34 to go to space.
09:35 That is a very small group of people.
09:38 And they are going to space.
09:40 They are working with diverse communities.
09:43 But as Victor Glover gives voice to in our film,
09:47 they cannot separate themselves from the social realities of
09:51 what is happening here on Earth.
09:53 In space, these diverse communities come together.
09:57 And through the power of what humankind can do there,
10:02 are collaborating on some of the most incredible experiments
10:06 that are advancing life for people on the Earth.
10:10 But imagine that kind of pull emotionally
10:14 when you look down on this beautiful planet
10:18 and you know that there is not equality and access for all.
10:23 [MUSIC PLAYING]
10:26 Three of us all recognize that one of us
10:28 would be the first black astronaut.
10:32 I would have made it to the moon one more step for man,
10:35 but they were not going to let that happen.
10:38 Representation becomes critically important to help
10:41 us keep moving down that path.
10:44 [MUSIC PLAYING]
10:48 [EXPLOSIONS]
10:51 [MUSIC PLAYING]
10:54 (whooshing)