【Twilight the Porno and Other XXX Parodies】

TORONTO --Hidden Figuresis hidden no more.

20th Century Fox threw a special event featuring footage from the space-race drama,Twilight the Porno and Other XXX Parodies which stars Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer and Janelle Monae as three NASA staffers who helped launch astronaut John Glenn into space. The film doesn't hit theaters until Jan. 13, but it's preparing for takeoff this awards season with a sneaky Oscar qualifying run in late December.

The Toronto International Film Festival's artistic director Cameron Bailey introduced the footage with the help of director Ted Melfi, who was unable to attend the event but sent along a video in his absence.

Melfi said he has daughters of his own and was sick of society consistently telling women that they aren't as smart or as technically-proficient as men when it comes to math and science. He's eager to see the world discover these hidden figures of NASA.

The well-received presentation was followed by a performance of songs from the film led by Pharrell Williams, who in addition to producing Hidden Figures, is also working with his "big brother" Hans Zimmer to compose the score. Williams promised it will be "revolutionary." The music impresario said he simply had to be a part of this story as he's from Hampton Roads, Virginia, where the film takes place.

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Let's start with the footage itself, which looked good and dug in deeper than the film's initial trailer. The film opens in Virginia in 1961, where Katherine G. Johnson (Henson), Dorothy Vaughan (Spencer) and Mary Jackson (Monae) have had their car break down en route to work at NASA. Initially fearful of a suspicious white police officer who finds them by the side of the road (before Dorothy wields her screwdriver like a magic wand), they soon accept his offer of a police escort to avoid being late. Our heroes get a kick out of three black woman chasing a police car down the highway.

At NASA, we meet Vivian Michael (Kirsten Dunst) a snooty supervisor who's no help to Dorothy, who has been doing the work of a supervisor but without the commensurate title or pay. Dunst, who is earmarked as one the "villains" here, chalks it up to NASA being "fast with rockets and slow with advancement." I'm sure the space agency will just love that line.

Next we see Katherine meet Al Harrison, a top dog at NASA, who takes a while to warm up to people, as well as his racist right-hand Paul Stafford (Jim Parsons). Vivian warns Katherine not to embarrass her in this world full of white men in white shirts and thin black ties. Al asks Katherine to double-check Stafford's numbers, which Paul insists are accurate. "If you could handle it, then shingles wouldn't be flying off the heat shield," Al snaps at him.

That's when nature calls and Katherine has to use the ladies' room. She asks a female colleague where it might be located, to which the cartoonishly racist white woman responds, "I have no idea where yourbathroom is." Poor Katherine has to run across NASA just to relieve herself, and the scene is set to "Runnin'," a spirited song that Williams said he wrote while "trying to pretend that I was her and what she might've felt like when she ran. What was shethinking?"

After that, we see Katherine demand to attend a high-level meeting full of white men. Paul objects, arguing that she doesn't have the proper clearance, prompting Al to ask who's in charge. That's when Katherine reminds him that he'sthe boss -- he just has to start acting like one.

With that, Katherine attends the meeting, where she impresses everyone with her math skills. The audience is lost when it comes to the equation, and even though math isn't inherently cinematic, Katherine's victory still tastes sweet. "I like her numbers," says astronaut John Glenn, who's played by rising star Glen Powell (Everybody Wants Some!!).

The best scene we saw, however, featured an incredibly moving speech by Monae's Mary Jackson as she pleads her case to a judge as to why she should be the first black woman allowed to attend an all-white high school in Virginia. Mary wisely appeals to the judge's own vanity, and he rewards her by allowing her to attend night classes, which apparently they had in high school back in the day. Between Hidden Figuresand a supporting role in Moonlight, Monae is certainly having a moment and is destined to be one of the breakout stars of fall.

Now for the Q&A. Henson said she was so glad she had signed on to Hidden Figures, and the timing of its release had her in tears. "I understand the emotion," added Spencer, whose character taught herself Fortran, a programming language that is key to both math and science computing.

"I needed a departure from Cookie," confessed Henson. "Not only that, but I never got into this industry or fell in love with acting because of the accolades. I'm a girl from the hood. I didn't grow up with much, so all I had was dreams, and hope, and the reason why this is so overwhelming is because when you come from a place where you have no dreams, no hope, and all you see is that people that look like you don't belong, they have no place in society, this story was important. This story is so important."

"If I had known about these women coming up, maybe I would've aspired to be a rocket scientist. Not to say that I've had a big journey, to clear that up," Henson said with a laugh. "But what I'm saying is that nowadays, this is all kids of color feel like they have. Sports. Rap. Acting. And there's so much more important work to be done.

"It really feels surreal right now. I'm sorry if I'm emotional. I look a mess in the makeup but I should've done like Alicia Keys and just took it off."

Spencer noted that "no women, not black or white, were mentioned in Apollo 13or any of these other movies. For me, I'm sad that Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson won't see this thing, but I'm excited that Katherine Johnson will," the Oscar winner said as she fought through tears.

"I just want her to be proud," added Henson, who said she's not sweating awards season. "People come up to me [talking about] Oscars. Everybody wants to put that pressure. I don't accept that pressure. I let y'all say it. What I was most concerned about, was if Katherine would be proud, because she's still alive. This is her story. Whether the Oscars love it [or not], will she be happy? That's all I care about. i want her to be proud of her story," said Henson.

"I think Hidden Figurestranscends race," said Monae. "Everywhere you look, young girls and boys can really be inspired to dream bigger and change the world like these women did."

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Wiliams used his closing words to explain the lyrics of his song "I See a Victory," which is sung by Kim Burrell. "It talks about how no matter how crazy the odds are stacked against you, there is a God that's greater than all of this, and if you don't subscribe to that, you at least know that there's a universe, and that ismuch bigger than all of us."

"We see what’s going on in society right now, right? The most important thing that I can gather from this movie is that it doesn't matter what your color is," said Henson. "It shouldn't matter what God you celebrate, what color your skin is, who you go to sleep with at night, who you said 'I do' to. I don't care. Can you get the job done?"

Henson's passion regarding the issue didn't stop there. "This movie represents what we should be thinking right now. How do we make this place better? We can do it! We all can do it! We all have obstacles. We all have our cross to bear. But this movie represents hope and I'm just happy to be a part of it. And we needit right now. This world is looking really scary right now. We need hope. The universe conjures up what it needs when it needs it and I believe that this movie is needed right now. Right now!"

"Amen, sister," chimed in Spencer. We couldn't have said it better ourselves.

And in case you're wondering, the song list (perfect for a rainy day) following the footage included "I See a Victory" (performed by Kim Burrell, Williams and local gospel group Echoes of Praise); "Runnin'" (Williams); "Crave" (Williams); "Able" (Williams) and "Surrender" (Lalah Hathaway and Williams).