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Eight years after the film “Hidden Figures” brought the work of three Black women NASA mathematicians to mass audiences, National Geographic will debut a documentary film “The Space Race: The Untold Story of the First Black Astronauts.” Featuring interviews with former test pilot Ed Dwight, NASA astronauts Victor Glover, Leland Melvin and more, “The Space Race” reveals the boundary-defying work of these men who dreamed of reaching the stars as Americans struggled for equality at home on solid ground. The film chronicles over 50 years of this history, up to 2020 and the news about George Floyd’s murder reaching the International Space Station.

The new film documents the discrimination these men faced in achieving their goals. In a trailer for the movie, NASA astronaut and former administrator Charlie Bolden remembers how amazed he was at America’s space program, but “growing up in the Jim Crow South, you knew what you...

National Geographic on Monday dropped the official trailer for its forthcoming feature-length documentary “The Space Race,” which weaves together “the untold story of the first Black astronauts seeking to break the bonds of social injustice to reach the stars.” It’s directed by Diego Hurtado de Mendoza and the Emmy-winning Lisa Cortes, who also produce along with Alexandra Bowen, Ally Parker, Mark Monroe and Kiro Birla. Together, they profile the Black pilots, scientists and engineers who joined NASA to drive forward the space program “even as their country failed to achieve equality for them back on Earth.” Watch the trailer above.

The 91-minute “The Space Race” debuts February 12 on National Geographic before streaming on Disney+ and Hulu the following day.

From 1963, when the assassination of President John F. Kennedy thwarted Captain Ed Dwight’s quest to reach the moon, to 2020, when the echoes of civil unrest sparked by the killing...

"Representation becomes critically important to help us keep moving down that path." Learn the true story of the very first Black astronauts. National Geographic has revealed their official trailer for the documentary film titled The Space Race, from filmmakers Diego Hurtado de Mendoza and Academy Award-nominated Lisa Cortés. This premiered at last year's Tribeca Film Festival, and it stopped by other film fests including Chicago, Indie Memphis, and Denver. This historical doc film explores the intriguing experiences of the first Black astronauts through decades of archive film and interviews in a reflective illumination on the burden of breaking barriers. An empowering look back at the early days of NASA and how things have evolved since then. With appearances by Guion Bluford, Charles Bolden, Ed Dwight, Victor Glover, Frederick Gregory, Bernard Harris, Leland Melvin, Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez, Jessica Watkins. The Space Race will debut first on National Geographic in February before streaming on Disney+ / Hulu.

Peter Nicks’ Anthem and Gabriel Francis Paz Goodenough’s The Body Politic are among the non-fiction highlights in this year’s DC/Dox documentary film festival in Washington, D.C. next month.

The event also will include the world premieres of Nick Capote’s Between Life & Death: Terri Schiavo’s Story, from MSNBC Films, and an episode of Dawn Porter’s Showtime series Supreme.

The full slate — read it here — includes 31 features and 21 shorts from eight countries. The event, to be held from June 15-18, also will feature the opening night event screening of Joan Baez I Am A Noise, with Baez scheduled to attend, and closing night Space Race, with astronauts Ed Dwight and Leland Melvin.

The festival launched last year after the AFI announced that it would merge AFI Docs, which had long been held in the D.C. area in June, into its annual AFI Film Festival, held in November in Los Angeles.

Exclusive: For NASA’s pioneering Black astronauts, gravity wasn’t the only barrier impeding them from reaching the highest heights. They also faced another implacable force, in the form of racial bias.

National Geographic Documentary Films today announced filmmakers Lisa Cortés and Diego Hurtado de Mendoza will direct and produce The Space Race, a feature documentary “that will uncover the little-known stories of the first Black pilots, engineers and scientists to become astronauts” and the obstacles that impacted their trajectory. Frank Marshall and Tony Rosenthal of The Kennedy/Marshall Company will executive produce the film, along with Carolyn Bernstein of National Geographic Documentary Films and Leland Melvin. The project will be produced by Kennedy/Marshall’s Alexandra Bowen and Aly Parker, Diamond Docs’ Mark Monroe and independent producer Keero Birla. Monroe will also serve as the film’s writer.

Astronaut Ed Dwight is interviewed for ‘The Space Race.

Instructional streamer Wondrium has ordered three seasons of “Wondrium Insights,” a new speaker series featuring guests including world champion boxer and Olympic gold medalist Sugar Ray Leonard, swimming legend and host Diana Nyad and singer/songwriter Mary Lambert.

The series will be distributed globally on Wondrium later this year. According to the service, “Each speaker will present their personal stories and challenges giving viewers an intimate opportunity to learn and discover tools that can help with perseverance, resilience, and success.”

Besides Leonard, Nyad and Lambert, the speakers also include former NBA player Jay Williams, social entrepreneur Shiza Shahid, astronaut/athlete/author Leland Melvin, former NFL linebacker Ryan Shazier, New York Jets defensive tackle Solomon Thomas, Stem education innovator Knatokie Ford, mentor/entrepreneur Ivy McGregor, rock climber Kevin Jorgeson, science and technology journalist David Kushner, Flickr co-founder/venture capitalist Caterina Fake, AI artist/musician/storyteller Taryn Southern and clinical psychologist Dr.

The first manned commercial spaceflight of Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin is all systems go, with the space company’s reusable launch vehicle New Shepard set for liftoff Tuesday morning.

Specifically, Blue Origin hopes to ascend to the heavens on Tuesday, July 20, from Launch Site One in the West Texas desert. A live broadcast walking up to the liftoff starts at 6:30 a.m. Cdt/4:30 a.m. Pt. The actual ignition is scheduled 90 minutes later, at 8 a.m. Cdt/5 a.m. Pt. As of Sunday, weather was not a constraint to launch and New Shepard is expected to launch on time.

Marking the significance of Bezos’ first flight to space, major cable news networks are planning live coverage, as well as the traditional broadcast networks. Craig Melvin will anchor on NBC, Gayle King and Norah O’Donnell will lead CBS’s coverage, and Robin Roberts and George Stephanopolous will anchor on...

The Hatfields versus the McCoys. Thomas Edison versus Nikola Telsa. DC versus Marvel. Dogs versus cats. … Well, maybe dog people versus cat people.

Great rivalries can inspire creative competition, breed history-making moments and teach those watching the rivalry play out a lot about themselves in the process. All too often, they also cause people to “pick a side” and declare themselves on one team or the other.

Take Netflix’s dueling docuseries “Dogs” and “Cat People,” for example: Launching on July 7, the second season of the former features four episodes dedicated to remarkable dogs (and their pet parents) from Butler University’s mascot Butler Blue to NASA astronaut Leland Melvin’s viral Rhodesian Ridgebacks. Meanwhile, also launching on July 7, the latter series debuts with six episodes focused on felines and their not-as-furry human companions, including rapper Moshow, Wakuneco artist Sachi and trainer Samantha Martin of the Amazing Acro-Cats. While both...

After streaming giant Netflix premiered its new docuseries “Dogs” in 2018, executive producer Glen Zipper recalls receiving a lot of love on social media from canine moms and dads — but he was also on the receiving end of irate tweets pressing for a companion show about cats. Three years later, as he prepares to launch the long-awaited second season of “Dogs” alongside the debut of new docuseries “Cat People,” Zipper hopes there will be balance and peace among pet parents.

“Our message [is], ‘Why can’t we love both?'” Zipper tells Variety.

Still, it was a long and often uneven road to get these series ready to stream. While the first season of “Dogs” was proof of concept for Zipper and executive producer Amy Berg, who wanted to lean into “happy” tales (no pun intended) about man’s (and woman’s) best friend, the outcry of interest in a show about...

Source: Courtesy of Sundance Film Festival Rebecca Hall, Questlove, Emilia Jones Festival director Tabitha Jackson to kick off five-day event in Opening Night Welcome.

Actors and first-time directors Rebecca Hall and Robin Wright, Coda stars Marlee Matlin and Emilia Jones, and musician and filmmaker Questlove are among a Sundance 2021 programme of special events, conversations and activations.

Hall and Wright will talk on January 31 in one of several virtual Cinema Café conversations about their Sundance world premieres and feature directorial debuts Passing and Land.

The roster includes Judas And The Black Messiah director Shaka King and Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson on January...

Updated, 1:57 Pm: Saturday’s planned SpaceX/NASA mission launch has been scrubbed and rescheduled for a day later due to a bad weather forecast. Discovery and Science Channel now will begin their live coverage at 2 p.m. Pt on Sunday.

Exclusive, November 11: SpaceX and NASA are reteaming to make some more history together this weekend. Elon Musk’s SoCal-based company and the U.S. space agency will send four astronauts to the International Space Station via the Falcon 9 rocket as part of the first official Iss crew-rotation mission from America in nearly a decade. Discovery and Science Channel will carry the launch live beginning at 3 p.m. Pt on Saturday, November 14.

Watch a promo for Space Launch Live: Crew-1 Liftoff above.

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-1 mission will launch U.S. astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker and Japan Aerospace Exploration astronaut Soichi Noguchi from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral,...

As part of its response to Covid-19 school closures, Varsity Tutors today announced that it has partnered with celebrity personalities from the worlds of entertainment, sports, and science to launch “StarCourse” – a series of live, online celebrity-led classes. These classes will be available for free to kids and parents as part of Varsity Tutors’ Virtual School Day.

Students attending the free live classes will have the opportunity to take a class with Emmy Award winner Julianne Hough, two-time champion of Dancing with the Stars and creator of Kinrgy; to learn health and wellness practices with gold medal gymnast, Aly Raisman; to study all things space with Leland Melvin, a former NFL star turned Nasa astronaut; and to talk neuroscience with Mayim Bialik, a PhD scientist and star of the hit show The Big Bang Theory. Each of these celebrity instructors will host their own live classes throughout the month of May.

Group Nine Media's presentation at the 2018 NewFronts was out of this world. The media company's new initiatives include a channel called Seeker Universe, which will share updates from outer space as the latest channel under the Seeker brand.

Seeker Universe, which is already active on Facebook, was introduced at the NewFronts by astronaut Leland Melvin (pictured above). Some of the channel's early videos fall into a category that can only be described as space porn:

Seeker is one of the best-performing brands under the umbrella of Group Nine, which was launched in 2016 with the help of a $100 million investment from Discovery. The science-themed destination counts more than eight million followers on its primary Facebook page as well as 3.2 million more on its main YouTube hub. Beyond Seeker Universe, its new ventures also include Seeker Science Fair, which will crowdsource ingenious science projects from among the brand's social media followers,...

Network: ABC Episodes: 17 (hour)Seasons: TwoTV show dates: June 21, 2015 -- September 1, 2016Series status: Cancelled Performers include: Chris Rose, Kenny Florian, Molly McGrath, Alison Haislip, Bobak Ferdowsi, Faruq Tauheed, Fon Davis, Jessica Chobot, and Leland Melvin.TV show description: A follow-up to the original BattleBots TV show, this competition series showcases the next generation of killer robots as they fight each other for the win. Read More…...

ABC premiered its first season of its BattleBots revival on June 21, 2015. Now the network announces it has renewed the once-cancelled Comedy Central series, for a second season. On the competitive reality series, contestants design and build robots, which face off against each other in combat.

The Comedy Central version which ran from 2000 to 2002, was hosted by Bil Dwyer, Sean Salisbury, and Tim Green. ABC's BattleBots stars: Chris Rose, Kenny Florian, Molly McGrath, Alison Haislip, Bobak Ferdowsi, Faruq Tauheed, Fon Davis, Jessica Chobot, and Leland Melvin. Read More…...

The original BattleBots TV show ran for five seasons on Comedy Central. Now, ABC has picked up a reimagined version of the show more than a dozen years later. How will the robotic competition perform in the ratings on a major network? Will it be cancelled or renewed for a second season? Stay tuned.

On the new version of BattleBots, the next generation of killer robots fight each other for the win. They're bigger, faster, and stronger than ever before. Episodes focus on the design and building of each robot, the bot builders' backstories, their intense pursuit of the championship, and the spectacle of the event. Commenting on and judging the action are Chris Rose, Kenny Florian, Molly McGrath, Alison Haislip, Bobak Ferdowsi, Faruq Tauheed, Fon Davis, Jessica Chobot, and Leland Melvin.

Read More…...

ABC’s BattleBots promises to be equal parts Real Steel and… Jurassic Park (?), at least based on the poster for the soon-to-premiere reality competition.

RelatedSummer TV: Suits, True Detective and 105+ Other Dates to Save

In ABC’s “reimagined take on the killer robot combat sport” — premiering Sunday, June 21 at 9/8c — homemade contraptions will battle each other in a single-elimination tournament-style format, until there is one ‘bot left whirring.

Check out the poster, then read on for more about the summertime series.

Molly McGrath (Fox Sports) will host BattleBots‘ metallic melees, veteran sports broadcaster Chris Rose and former Ufc fighter Kenny Florian...

Who knew a Nasa portrait could be so doggone cute? The space program's traditional pose was temporarily upstaged when astronaut Leland Melvin turned his official Nasa picture into an impromptu family photo session. Clad in his orange Nasa space suit, Melvin flashes a huge smile as he happily gets a kiss and a snuggle from his dogs, Jake and Scout. It wasn't long before the snapshot set tails - er, tongues - wagging on Twitter. When a fan of the photo asked if the space explorer had really managed to sneak his two furry sidekicks into the studio, the proud dog owner responded,...

Who knew a Nasa portrait could be so doggone cute? The space program's traditional pose was temporarily upstaged when astronaut Leland Melvin turned his official Nasa picture into an impromptu family photo session. Clad in his orange Nasa space suit, Melvin flashes a huge smile as he happily gets a kiss and a snuggle from his dogs, Jake and Scout. It wasn't long before the snapshot set tails - er, tongues - wagging on Twitter. When a fan of the photo asked if the space explorer had really managed to sneak his two furry sidekicks into the studio, the proud dog owner responded,...