Ed Dwight, says his daughter, Tamara Rhone, “is one of the most forgiving people you will ever see.”

Good thing, given how much this country did to a young Dwight that demands forgiveness.

When Dwight was being groomed to become the nation’s first Black astronaut in the early 1960s, that wasn’t his dream. It was John F. Kennedy’s. The president had campaigned on a platform of civil rights and support for the developing space program. He knew a Black space trainee would make for good optics, so he ordered the Pentagon to find him one – and Captain Ed Dwight was plucked out of the Air Force for the job. Dwight had the credentials, including an aeronautics degree and 2,000 flying hours. He soon became the public face of the training program, even though NASA’s internal brass would discourage his selection every step of the way.

The White House blatantly used Dwight for propaganda purposes – he was even forced to pose for happy family photos with his first wife and pretend they were still married – even though they were divorced. He was trotted in front of press conferences and sent to talk to countless communities to speak on NASA’s behalf. And yet, he was continually being passed over for advancement.

Dwight had no idea the systemic, racist opposition he would face all along the way – namely from aviation hero Chuck Yeager, the first person to break the sound barrier. Yeager went on to become head of the Aerospace Research Pilot School – and he did everything he could to get Dwight to quit.

When Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, whatever support there was for Dwight to make scientific and racial history evaporated into space. To Dwight, it’s simple.

“If Kennedy had lived, I would’ve eventually gone into space. That’s the net of the story,” Dwight said last night at a special Denver Film Festival screening of the powerful new documentary “The Space Race,” which chronicles the contributions of Black people to human space flight – even as that country failed to afford equality for them on Earth. “But I was actually called to the White House and told that President Johnson needed his own Black astronaut because he didn’t like the Kennedys very well.”

Feeling disillusioned and used, Dwight quit the space program in 1966. He eventually moved to Denver and ran several businesses while quietly creating a legendary collection of historically important sculptures and paintings – more than 18,000 by some counts – out of a huge studio that is now home to the Wonderbound modern-dance company.

“I eventually came to see that I was not meant to fly in space,” Dwight said. “My role in all of this was to start the conversation – because prior to that time, there was no conversation,” he said. But that conversation would go on for another 20 years before Guy Bluford finally became the first Black astronaut to fly into space in 1983. Since then, there have been 16 Black astronauts, a group that collectively calls themselves “The Afronauts.” But they represent just a fraction of the nearly 300 NASA astronauts to fly in space. In 2024, Victor Glover is expected to become the first Black astronaut to walk on the moon.

“The Space Race,” made over six years by co-directors Diego Hurtado de Mendoza and Lisa Cortés, was shown, appropriately enough, in the Museum of Nature and Science’s new IMAX Infinity Theater.

Dwight, now a still-spry 90, called it “an absolutely phenomenal film.” He basked in the warmth of a capacity crowd that included dozens of family members.

He’s only now starting to be fully recognized for his contributions to the space program. But better late than never. In 2020, Dwight was made an honorary Space Force member in Washington, D.C.

“That meant everything to him,” said his daughter. “He’s now being honored by a lot of the places that he was shut out of, and he accepts them all graciously. And the other astronauts, like Charlie Bolden and Leland Melvin and Victor Glover, are so good to him.

“I’m just so thrilled that he’s getting his flowers now. For him to be able to enjoy this while he’s still living means everything.”

In what has become a recurring theme of the 2023 Denver Film Festival, Dwight encouraged the capacity crowd to do their reading.

“Black history is our history,” he said, “and we forget it at our peril.”

SCREENING OF THE DAY

The fest runs through Sunday, but the “Closing Night” centerpiece, “I.S.S,” will be screened at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science’s Infinity Theater. “I.S.S.” is a high-stakes thriller set entirely in the confines of the International Space Station and pits astronauts against one another when a worldwide conflict occurs back on Earth. Rock-star director Gabriela Cowperthwaite, who grew up in Colorado and brought the phenomenal documentary “The Grab” to the festival last year, will receive the Barbara Bridges Inspiration Award.

SPOTLIGHT ON COLORADO

Hair-splitters can nit-pick the data, but violent crime in metro Denver destroyed a lot of lives in 1993, just as it has in 2023 and every year in between. But in the summer of ‘93, it got a name. With “Summer of Violence,” director and screenwriter Nicki Micheaux looks back at the tragic events of that time, when the recent college grad turned down law school to pursue poetry while those close to her were dying from gang activity. Denver Film Artistic Director Matthew Campbell calls the film “an intense, devastating narrative that uses the events of 1993 as its backdrop – but it’s really about this amazing woman.” 6:15 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday at the AMC9.

LET’S MAKE UP

Oscar-nominated makeup artist Donald Mowat shared insights on his craft at a special panel held at the Jacquard Hotel in Cherry Creek. Mowat told stories from working on “Dune,” “Blade Runner 2049,” “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” “Prisoners” and many more.

One of the best was his approach to creating the look for Emily Blunt in “Sicario,” a 2015 action thriller that starred Blunt as an FBI special agent working with the CIA to flush out a Mexican cartel lieutenant.

“To me, she is one of the most underrated actresses in the business,” Mowat said. “But I had just seen her in some Tom Cruise film, and she looked so completely manufactured that I thought, ‘Well, “Sicario” is not going to work if she looks like that.’” Mowat’s accomplishment was making one of the most beautiful women on the planet look like a regular person.

“Emily has said nobody can make people look like (bleep) like I can,” he said with a laugh. “And I take it as an absolute compliment because I think it was really, really hard to make her look like that. It’s one of my favorite films I’ve ever worked on.”

QUOTE OF THE DAY

One of the most gravity- (and expectation-) defying films of the fest was the locally made short documentary “Come One Come All: A Circus With a Purpose,” which introduces audiences to – who would have thought? – an all-inclusive “social circus”  in Salida, three hours south of Denver in Chaffee County. Here, life under the big tent is more than juggling knives, clowns and walking the tightrope – it’s about changing lives.

“Our circus has been a way to act as a magnet, to bring people together, show them something joyful and fun – and then, that connects people heart-to-heart and human-to-human,” said founder Jennifer Dempsey. “If you take a heavy subject and you clown it, then suddenly everybody relates to it.”

INFORMATION AND TICKETS

Go to denverfilm.org

MORE PHOTOS