What do you know about Result Ride? For American citizens of a certain age, scientific waves, Spacekeek’s and feminist historians, the simplest answer is the most obvious: she was the first American woman astronaut to visit outer space. But while Ride’s life – at least the professional aspects of it – pushed her into the limelight and turned her into a public figure whose influence was previously unmatched, Ride went big to hide her most private secrets, desires and even identity. Think about this: Most people had no idea to ride was a lesbian, let alone one who had been in a committed relationship with her partner for decades, until her death in 2012, when it was mentioned in her official death.
It seems that there was no one anxious to be knownand it’s the pickle Documentary Cristina Costantini is in with regard to her documentary “Sally.” How do you bring to the screen the life of someone who would probably have driven from such a project? Costantini, a self-defeated science nerd and lifelong ride-fan, trying to make it a move in her filmNot an error. Yes, Ride’s life was full of tensions, both personal and professional. So how do we build a movie around it? Gently. Maybe too carefully.
DOC combines both archive films of Ride – the most impressive From his time at NasaA Trove of sharp, exciting insider looks at their training-and recently shot 16 mm pieces that use actors to get a ride and long-lasting partner Tam O’Shaughnessy to life in the moments they would not do, or even could notRecord when they happened. O’Shaughnessy provides part of the film’s Voiceover story, as well as Ride, through old interviews repaid in service to the relatively standard method to tell a full life story.
Push-Pull of Ride’s Life was apparently everywhere, especially after she joined the first class of potential Nasa-Astronauts to welcome women and minorities (NASA-ASTRONAut Group 8), through a handwritten application that proclaimed her references and showed off its sense of self -promoting. A Talking Head shares that ride “liked to be a golden girl” and her clear competitive spirit is obvious from the beginning, but many interviews see her begging of her possible title as the first American woman in space (or even before she was picked for her mission and trying to wave away opportunity of that happens).
But Ride had been used to saying one thing and doing another long before that. Ride and O’Shaughnessy actually met before the teens at tennis camp-O’Shaughnessy continued to play tennis professionally, and Billie Jean King, a mentor for both women, seems to be part of a star and interesting range of talking heads and With O’Shaughnessy not realized that Ride was a lesbian until years later, despite Ride’s college girlfriend, Molly Tyson (who also shows up), was another of their tennis friends.
When Ride and O’Shaughnessy renews its acquaintance after Ride Nasa acceptance, O’Shaughnessy’s confusion over Ride’s wishes is understandable: After all, she had married a colleague Astronaut (Steven Hawley, also appears in interviews), perhaps as a way to divert Some of the graceless press attention applied to her personal life. The press is just awful to ride, just ever shown that she asks her curious questions about her femininity and femininity, a reflection of the time that is still standing. The baked sexism in Nasa is also a common theme, and one of the film’s most moving moments arrives at the last act, where one of Ride’s self -proposed “male sexist” cohorts again recognizes the error in his roads in an open -hearted letter to O’Shaughnessy.
Maybe, says the scene, some people can change. But could ride?
“Sally” offers many possible explanations as to why ride was as she was, many of them anchored in her family life. To say that her parents were emotionally suspended is an understatement, and Ride’s mother even seems to be sitting for an interview with Costantini, during which the concept of sharing their feelings (Again, if her dead famous daughter) offends her so deeply, the possibility that she can go out feels too real. But even Ride’s Sister Bear, who also came out as a lesbian, is struggling to understand why Ride could not put words into what was so clear to everyone else.
“Let Sally be Sally” eventually became something of a mantra for O’Shaughnessy, which was deeply painted by part of Ride’s reticence through their otherwise quite loving lives together. But who was Sally? Who did she think she was? Who did she want us to see? “Sally” does not really answer these questions, but it really reaches the stars in a serious attempt to find them.
Rating: B.
“Sally” premiered at 2025 Sundance Film festival. It is currently seeking US distribution.
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