Sally Ride Documentary, in Debut at Sundance, Sheds New Light on Famed La Jolla Astronaut

The late space pioneer Sally Ride is the subject of a documentary, Sally, that premiered to acclaim at the Sundance Film Festival.

The film focuses on how Ride became the first American woman in space, while staying in the closet and hiding her relationship with Tam O’Shaughnessy, her partner of 27 years. When Ride, 61, died in 2012, their bond was acknowledged in her obituary.

The former La Jolla resident – a science academy at UC San Diego is named for her, as well as a U.S. Navy research vessel operated by Scripps Institution of Oceanography – made her landmark ride aboard the space shuttle Challenger on June 18, 1983.

The Hollywood Reporter described Sally as “a clear-eyed film” that offers an “engaging, socially relevant portrait of an American heroine.” It also depicts the male-dominated culture – and one far less open to the LGBTQ community – in place at the time she was preparing to become an astronaut.

IndieWire said the film, which it gave a “B” grade, presents “a trove of crisp, thrilling insider looks at her training” and “a stellar and interesting assortment of talking heads,” including tennis legend Billie Jean King.

The movie, from National Geographic and directed by Cristina Costantini, was awarded the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s juried Feature Film Prize, for works that meld art with science, ahead of Tuesday’s premiere.

O’Shaughnessy, who is interviewed at length in the documentary, said she “love(s) the movie, I’m very proud of it.”

“Once Sally passed away, I just always wanted the real story of her life to come through, a truthful documentary, not a … fiction, the real thing,” she told ParkRecord.com at last week’s premiere.