WASHINGTON — Not all history is found in your standard school textbook.
That’s why the Avalon Theatre in D.C.’s Chevy Chase neighborhood started the Cinema Classroom program, screening historical movies to sixth through 12th grade students across the nation’s capital.
“Our mission is to educate through film,” Beth Anderson, Avalon marketing and communications director, told WTOP. “So for about four years, we’ve been doing this program called Cinema Classroom at The Avalon, which is a free screening-discussion program that brings students into our historic theater to see films and engage in a discussion with a subject-matter expert after the film.”
What better film for this program than “Hidden Figures,” which is not only fresh off a SAG Award for Best Ensemble, but is also a powerful reminder of often-lost history this Black History Month. Based on the book by Margot Lee Shetterly, the film follows a trio of African-American women — Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson — who crunched the numbers to put John Glenn into orbit in the segregated computing division of NASA’s Langley Research Center in 1961 Virginia.
“It’s a great movie, a great story and a great piece of history that people don’t necessarily know,” Anderson said. “I’m a mom, my daughter’s in kindergarten and she’s really into space right now. I came out of this movie going, ‘My daughter is gonna be the Katherine Johnson of today! She is gonna do the math calculations to get us to Saturn!’ That’s the feeling you have at the end of the movie.”
The students who saw Tuesday morning’s screening said they were both educated and inspired.
“It was inspiring and told us what we can become,” said Zyonnah of J.G. Whittier Education Campus.
“I learned that we need to study hard,” classmate Hayimanot said.
“It made us third graders think about what black people had and what they knew,” classmate Kaylee said. “It made me want to be a scientist. I didn’t want to be a scientist before [the film], but after, I do.”
Which scenes resonated with them the most?
“I liked when the scientist [Kevin Costner] took the sign off the ‘Colored Women’ bathroom,” said Vicky of Chavez Prep Middle School. “He took it off because they are the same. … Best movie ever.”
Not only was it inspiring to the young girls, the young boys found it captivating.
“I liked how they give it from the perspective of a woman this time, showing that not only a man can do this, but also a woman,” Luis of Chavez Prep said.
“There should be more movies about it,” classmate William said. “It actually is inspiring for both men and women, but more [so] women, because it shows that, even though they’re women, they can do it.”
Not only did the kids learn about social equality, they also learned new facts about NASA history.
“At first, I thought they took years and years to do just one spaceship just to go straight to the moon,” Luis said of the Apollo missions after the Mercury project. “I didn’t know they went into orbits first.”
These young millennials were also surprised at the change in technology since the 1960s.
“There’s some stuff there that I never knew about, like that they used those types of computers,” classmate Jose said of a memorable scene where NASA wheels in giant IBM computer machines. “Back then, it was really complicated. They had to break the door to put all the computers back in!”
Ironically, the film wasn’t originally part of this year’s slate of screenings, but rather a late addition.
“‘Hidden Figures’ is a new film that came out that we didn’t originally have on our schedule for this year, but when we saw it, we just thought, ‘Oh! This would be such a great film for students to see,'” Anderson said. “Unfortunately, since it’s new, we weren’t able to offer it for free, but we had a couple of donors generously step up and offer to subsidize tickets for students to come see this film.”
The donors have asked to remain anonymous, but the subsidies enable the screenings at a low cost by The Avalon, which is the oldest operating theater in D.C. and the city’s only nonprofit film center.
“Thanks to them, over 2,000 students have signed up to come see this movie at The Avalon,” Anderson said. “Students from public and charter schools were able to get tickets for $3.”
The morning field trips are coordinated directly between local schools and The Avalon.
“We sign up through schools,” Anderson said. “Schools work with us and bring classes to the program. So if you’re a parent interested in this program, I’d say go to your child’s teacher or administration at their school and say, ‘Hey, the Avalon has this great program and we should reach out to them.'”
The theater also received crucial arts funding from the city government to expand this year’s slate.
“We originally had five movies scheduled for this year, but we actually just received a grant from the D.C. Commission of Arts & Humanities to add two more films and cover transportation for students,” Anderson said. “All of the films have a social justice theme and talk about different periods of history.”
This year’s lineup kicked off in October with “A Brave Heart: The Lizzie Velasquez Story” (2015), an anti-bullying documentary about one woman’s mission to create a more positive online community.
The series continued in December with “The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler” (2009), starring Anna Paquin in the true story of a social worker who was part of the Polish underground during World War II and was arrested by the Nazis after saving the lives of nearly 2,500 Jewish children.
After “Hidden Figures,” the Cinema Classroom program continues Feb. 7 and 8 with the documentary “Soundtrack for a Revolution” (2009) about the influential music of the civil rights movement.
The series continues on March 28 and 29 with the climate change documentary “Chasing Ice” (2012), following National Geographic photographer James Balog across the Arctic as he uses time-lapse cameras specifically designed to capture a multiyear record of the world’s changing glaciers.
The program wraps at the end of the school year on May 9 and 10 with “A Better Life” (2011), starring Demián Bichir in an Oscar-nominated role as a gardener in east L.A. struggling to keep his son away from gangs and immigration agents while trying to give him opportunities he never had.
Past screenings have included “Selma” (2015) and “To Kill a Mockingbird” (1962), featuring words of wisdom by both Martin Luther King Jr. and Atticus Finch: “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view, until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.”
“That idea of ‘walking around in the skin,’ that’s what this program is all about: to put yourself in someone else’s shoes by seeing it on screen,” Anderson said. “Seeing things on film sometimes helps you experience things in a way that you don’t think about it. We do evaluations of the students after every program and so often we hear from students that say, ‘I never really thought about it this way’ or ‘I never really understood how bad things were or how much one person could change things.’ So being able to come and see inspiring films like these can really make a difference for students.”
Click here for more information. Click here to register sixth-eighth grade students. Click here to register ninth-12th grade students. Contact Sarah Pokempner at 202-966-2149 or filmeducation@theavalon.org.
