SUNDANCE 2025: Sally

 

My cerebral cortex became flooded with memories watching the space shuttle Challenger burst in smoke shortly after liftoff.  What I failed to remember is that flight was the second time Challenger went up.

During the first Challenger flight, Sally Ride became the first American woman to blast off into space, but beneath her unflappable composure was a secret. Sally’s life partner, Tam O’Shaughnessy, reveals their hidden romance and the sacrifices that accompanied their 27 years together.

Director Cristina Costantini’s rich portrait of astronaut Sally Ride brings a fullness to her life reaching beyond the headlines of her trailblazing voyage past Earth’s atmosphere. Taking the viewer behind the scenes to witness NASA training and missions, while navigating press appearances,  reflect the media frenzy Ride was subjected to both before and after her historic first flight.

Ride’s male peers and constituents engaged in not only pitting her against friend Judy Resnick, who “liked to have fun” versus Sally who was “all business,” but viewed both women a “sexual creatures” who they felt hadn’t paid their dues like the men in the space program. Why?  Out of the 4,000 employed at the Johnson Space Center, only four of them were women.

Not to mention, watching her mentor and friend Bille Jean King become vilified for having a same sex relationship, made her go through extenuating circumstances to hide the love of her life Tam by marrying fellow astronaut Steve Hawley.

However, all of that took a back seat the Sally Ride Science program where Tam and Sally trained over 30,000 teachers and reached over 6 million students with their books, festival and workshops. Yet, as much as we always desire our heroes to experience life eternal,  Ride lost her fight to pancreatic cancer in 2012 and in 2014 NASA celebrated its first LGBTQ Pride event where Tam and Sally’s sister Bear were featured guests.

At its core “Sally” skillfully weaves together a love story of space, women and equality while dispelling myths around sexuality, skill and what can happen when you just hire the best person for the job.