A brand new documentary in regards to the life and love of America’s first girl in area will premiere on the 2025 Sundance Movie Pageant.
“SALLY,” from National Geographic and director Cristina Costantini, reveals the legacy of NASA astronaut Sally Journey. That includes archival footage filmed each on the bottom and in area, together with new interviews with Journey’s shut associates and colleagues, the documentary permits entry to the “actual Journey,” who struggled with the “limits and sacrifices true heroism calls for.”
“‘SALLY’ is the story of pioneering astronaut Sally Journey, who was the first American woman to go to space. And it is also a love story about her 27-year-long romance with Tam O’Shaughnessy, which was hidden from the general public till the day she died,” mentioned Costantini in an interview for the Sundance Institute. “Sally, like so many well-known individuals, damage these closest to her for the good thing about individuals she’ll by no means meet.”
“It took a whole lot of bravery to launch into area, and it takes an immense quantity of bravery to like who you’re keen on, even when tradition is just not prepared to just accept you for that on the time,” mentioned Constantini.

Previous to becoming a member of NASA’s astronaut corps in 1978, Journey was a physicist and a nationally ranked youth tennis participant. One of many first six U.S. women to train for a spaceflight, Journey helped to deploy two satellites on NASA’s seventh area shuttle mission and carried out Earth observations on the thirteenth flight of this system.
Associated: Sally Journey: 1st American girl in area
After leaving NASA, Journey served as a physics professor and, with O’Shaughnessy, co-founded Sally Journey Science, a nonprofit group to encourage younger girls to pursue careers in science, know-how, engineering and arithmetic (STEM) fields.
Ride died of pancreatic cancer in 2012 on the age of 61.
Narrated by O’Shaughnessy and that includes tennis star Billie Jean King along with astronauts Anna Lee Fisher and Kathy Sullivan, “SALLY” has already been acknowledged for its profile of Journey as a scientist and particular person. The movie has been named the winner of the 2025 Alfred P. Sloan Function Movie Prize, a juried award granted for essentially the most excellent depiction of science and know-how in a feature-length movie proven at Sundance.

“SALLY” is among the many 87 characteristic movies that may display at the Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah festival from Jan. 23 via Feb. 2. The movie can even be out there to stream on-line from Jan. 30 to Feb. 2, for audiences throughout the nation. Tickets will go on sale Jan. 16.
“Sally Journey was a daring pioneer whose legacy continues to encourage new generations of astronauts, scientists and dreamers. This documentary will probably be a tribute to her accomplishments and a testomony to the significance of variety and inclusion in scientific exploration,” mentioned Carolyn Bernstein, govt vp of scripted content material and documentary movies for Nationwide Geographic, in a statement.
An Emmy Award-winning director, Costantini started her profession as an investigative journalist. Her first movie, “Science Truthful,” which gained the Sundance Pageant Favourite Award in 2018, was become a sequence for Nationwide Geographic. Her second documentary, “Mucho Mucho Amor,” in regards to the lifetime of astrologer Walter Mercado, was acquired by Netflix.

“Cristina Costantini is the proper filmmaker to inform Sally Journey’s story,” mentioned Bernstein. “Her ardour for science and movie and dedication to girls’s equality carry depth and ethos to the venture. We’re thrilled to collaborate along with her, Story Syndicate and Muck Media as soon as once more on this momentous venture.”
Costantini mentioned that it was a “nice privilege to have the ability to have fun a love story that could not be instructed on the time.”
“I can not wait to share ‘SALLY,'” she mentioned.
Comply with collectSPACE.com on Facebook and on X at @collectSPACE. Copyright 2024 collectSPACE.com. All rights reserved.

