Sally Ride – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

SALLY – Review by April Neale

June 13, 2025June 12, 2025 April Neale Cristina Costantini, disney, documentary, hulu, Judith Reznik, lesbian, nasa, National Geographic Documentary Films, Sally, Sally Ride, STEM, Steve Hawley, Tam O’Shaughnessy

Equal parts moving and informative, the documentary Sally takes us inside the very private life of the late Sally Ride, our fearless Norwegian-American trailblazer who eschewed attention and fanfare. She died far too young, at age 61, from pancreatic cancer. Yet, she left a legacy of STEM nonprofit work tied to UC San Diego (Sally Ride Science), where the girls of today and tomorrow can achieve the stratosphere in engineering, science, and mathematics, and maybe someday become astronauts like Sally had achieved. Her work in STEM education and her groundbreaking achievements as the first American woman in space continue to inspire and pave the way for future generations of women in these fields.

Festivals Reviews

SALLY (Sundance FF 2025) – Review by Leslie Combemale

February 3, 2025February 3, 2025 Leslie Combemale (Sundance FF 2025), Challenger tragedy, Cristina Costantini, documentary, lgbtq, nasa, Sally, Sally Ride, space exploration, Tam O’Shaughnessy

With so much in the news every day right now on LGBTQ Americans having their rights stripped away, Cristina Costantini’s new documentary Sally, about pioneering female astronaut Sally Ride, feels both perfectly timed and all too timely. Costantini, who won Sundance’s Audience Award for her film Science Fair in 2018, uses a mix of archival footage, voice recordings from Ride herself, and interviews with those closest to her to build the story of her complicated life. The fact that she was gay and in a longtime relationship with a woman was only revealed to the public via Ride’s obituary, after she died of cancer in 2012. Chief among those sharing memories in this revealing documentary is Ride’s partner of 27 years, Tam O’Shaughnessy. Ride was a trailblazer for women and girls interested in STEM, but also a woman who struggled with balancing her public and private personas. She gave everything to her career, which often meant compromising her personal life by staying in the closet.