Sally

Most people know Sally Ride as the answer to a trivia question: first American woman in space, 1983. What they don’t know, and what this documentary is really about, is that Ride spent 27 years with a woman named Tam O’Shaughnessy and told almost no one, because NASA and the era gave her no room to. Sally is a solid, moving telling of both stories, the public triumph and the private life she had to keep in a separate box.

It’s conventional in form, the usual archival-and-talking-heads build, but the material is strong enough that it doesn’t need tricks. Tam’s interviews are the heart of it. It’s a reminder that the barrier-breakers we put on posters were paying costs the poster never showed. Worth it for her story finally being told whole.

A National Geographic documentary on Dr. Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, using never-before-seen archival footage and revealing her 27-year relationship with Tam O'Shaughnessy, kept secret until Ride's death.