Sally

Cristina Costantini's documentary tells Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, through two stories. One is known: the physicist, the tennis player, the woman who became a national symbol with NASA's 1983 flight. The other stayed out of public view until her death: a twenty-seven-year relationship with Tam O'Shaughnessy. O'Shaughnessy is at the centre of the film and most of the narration comes through her. Why the relationship was kept private is the real subject: the institutional climate at NASA in the eighties, the press questions directed at women astronauts, what being open would have meant for a career. Ride's secrecy was not a preference but a calculated cost. The documentary also uses archive footage to show how late and how reluctantly NASA moved to a programme that included women. Ride's obituary was the text through which the public first learned of the relationship. Who it's for: those interested in the history of spaceflight and in lives that were kept out of sight. Who it's not for: viewers wanting technical detail about the missions; the film's weight is on the private life, not the flights.