SALLY Premieres on National Geographic on June 16 and Streams on Disney+ and Hulu on June 17
From Emmy® -Winning Director Cristina Costantini, Renowned Producer Lauren Cioffi, Oscar®- and Emmy-Winning Producer Dan Cogan and Emmy-Winning Producer Jon Bardin, SALLY Delves Into the Life of the First Female Astronaut and Her Extraordinary Legacy
Today, National Geographic Documentary Films released the trailer and key art for SALLY, a film that honors the life of Sally Ride, the first American woman to travel to space. From Emmy-winning director Cristina Costantini of Muck Media (“Science Fair,” “Karol G”), SALLY will also reveal the story of Ride’s private relationship with Tam O’Shaughnessy, her partner of 27 years, with new detail and insight never shared before. SALLY is produced by Cristina Costantini, Lauren Cioffi (“Love Has Won: The Cult of Mother God,” “Becoming”), Oscar and Emmy winner Dan Cogan (“Icarus,” “Becoming Cousteau”) and Emmy winner Jon Bardin of Story Syndicate (“Gone Girls: The Long Island Serial Killer,” “Harry & Meghan”).The film will premiere on National Geographic on Monday, June 16, at 9/8c and be available to stream globally the next day on Disney+ and Hulu.
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SALLY world premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and was awarded the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Feature Film Prize. The film continues to garner praise and acclaim, with critics calling it “an overwhelming triumph,” “inspiring,” and “long overdue.” Most recently, SALLY screened at the San Francisco International Film Festival, SXSW, True/False, the International Festival of Science Documentary Films in the Czech Republic, Miami International Film Festival, and Milwaukee Film Festival, among others. It will continue to screen at multiple festivals around the world, including Millennium Docs Against Gravity in Poland and Seattle International Film Festival. The film’s release on National Geographic, Disney+ and Hulu is timed to the anniversary of Sally Ride’s spaceflight, which took place on June 18, 1983.
Director Cristina Costantini said, “I can’t recall the exact moment that Sally Ride first captured my imagination, but I know that I’ve been obsessed with her story from a very young age. I was drawn to telling the story of a trailblazing woman fighting for respect in a male-dominated world. But above all, I wanted to explore the beautiful, unknown love story between Sally and Tam O’Shaughnessy. Their enduring relationship was kept secret from the public for 27 long years. Our film celebrates the Sally we all knew through her accomplishments and, for the first time, pays homage to the one we never could know.”
Sally Ride became the first American woman to blast off into space, but beneath her unflappable composure, she carried a secret. Revealing the romance and sacrifices of their 27 years together, Sally’s life partner, Tam O’Shaughnessy, tells the full story of this complicated and iconic astronaut for the first time. The film features interviews with tennis champion and close friend to Ride, Billie Jean King; Sally’s sister, Bear Ride; and mother, Carol Joyce Ride, along with additional members of NASA’s class of 1978: Anna Fisher, Kathy Sullivan, John Fabian and Steve Hawley.
"Sally was a true pioneer—a hero who shattered barriers for girls and women and redefined what it means to be a leader," said film participant and executive producer Tam O’Shaughnessy, Ride’s life partner. "I want the world to see Sally for who she truly was: passionate, private, ambitious, brave, funny, loyal, comfortable in her own skin and, above all, full of love. Our relationship was unique and transformative, and it deeply shaped both of our lives. It was important to me that this film not only celebrate Sally’s legacy but also share the story of our bond. I’m forever grateful to Cristina Costantini, National Geographic Documentary Films, Story Syndicate, and the entire team for bringing this story to life, one that couldn’t be told until now and is more relevant than ever.”
Director Cristina Costantini returned to Sundance in January with her third feature documentary, SALLY, based on the life of Sally Ride. She was previously at the 2018 Sundance Festival with her debut film “Science Fair” about the competitive world of high school science fairs (co-directed with Darren Foster) and the 2020 Sundance Festival with “Mucho Mucho Amor” (co-directed with Kareem Tabsch). “Science Fair” won the Festival Favorite Award at Sundance and was acquired by National Geographic Documentary Films. After it captured the hearts and minds of viewers at festivals across the world, it went on to win an Emmy, spawn a spin-off series, and inspire future generations of scientists. “Mucho Mucho Amor” was purchased by Netflix at the festival in 2020 and went on to nominations from the News & Documentary Emmys as well as being honored as Best Documentary of the Year by the Imagen Foundation Awards and the Latino Entertainment Journalist Association Film Awards. She returns to Netflix this May with the feature documentary “Karol G: Tomorrow was Beautiful,” which takes an in-depth look at the artist’s impressive rise to fame as one of the biggest Latin musical artists of all time.
SALLY marks a full circle moment for the director as she considered herself a science nerd as a kid and has idolized Sally Ride her entire life, even painting a mural on the wall of her elementary school in Sally’s honor. Costantini got her start as an award-winning investigative journalist, covering detention centers, immigration, and the opioid crisis. She has received numerous awards from the National Association of Hispanic Journalists for her work, as well as a DuPont Award and several Emmy nominations. Born and raised in Wisconsin, Costantini is a graduate of Yale University. She now lives in Los Angeles with her husband Alfie, daughter Penny, and elderly pug dog Harriet.
SALLY is presented by National Geographic Documentary Films and is a Story Syndicate production in association with Muck Media. The film is directed by Cristina Costantini. Dan Cogan and Jon Bardin of Story Syndicate serve as producers along with Lauren Cioffi and Costantini. Writers for the film are Tom Maroney and Costantini. Executive producers include Liz Garbus, Tam O’Shaughnessy, Kate Barry, Mala Chapple, Tom Maroney, Carolyn Bernstein with National Geographic Documentary Films, and Bill and Ruth Ann Harnisch.
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About National Geographic Documentary Films
National Geographic Documentary Films, part of a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company and the National Geographic Society, is committed to bringing the world premium, feature documentaries that cover timely, provocative and globally relevant stories from the very best documentary filmmakers. Its award-winning and critically acclaimed films reach 300 million people worldwide in 180 countries and 33 languages across the global National Geographic channels and direct-to-consumer platforms Disney+ and Hulu. Recent films include Oscar® and Peabody Award nominee Sugarcane, Oscar-nominated and Peabody Award winner Bobi Wine: The People’s President, Oscar- and BAFTA-nominated Fire of Love, three-time Emmy® Award winner The First Wave, Emmy and Peabody Award winner The Territory, BAFTA nominees The Rescue and Becoming Cousteau, and Oscar and BAFTA winner Free Solo. For more information, visit films.nationalgeographic.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.
Story Syndicate
StorySyndicate is a New York-based media company devoted to premium nonfiction and scripted content. Founded in 2019 by Academy Award®- and Emmy Award®-winning filmmakers Liz Garbus and Dan Cogan, Story Syndicate provides a home for talented filmmakers, producers, journalists, thinkers, and artists to create innovative, ambitious, and elevated visual content. Story Syndicate makes 10-15 films and series per year for the major streamers - Netflix, HBO, Apple, Amazon, FX, Hulu, NatGeo, Disney+, Roku - as well as financing select independent projects with equity. Previously-released projects include: the six-part viewership record-setting docuseries Harry & Meghan (Netflix); the double feature Number One on the Call Sheet (Apple) chronicling the stories of Black actors and actresses in Hollywood with producers Jamie Foxx, Kevin Hart, Angela Bassett, and Halle Berry; the Liz Garbus-directed three-part series Gone Girls: The Long Island Serial Killer (Netflix); Zackary Drucker’s Sundance-premiering Enigma (HBO); The Last Take (Hulu) the story of the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the film RUST; the critically acclaimed and genre-defying series Last Call (HBO) and Stolen Youth: The Cult at Sarah Lawrence (Hulu); the shocking medical true-crime feature Take Care of Maya (Netflix); the Oscar-nominated Dwyane Wade EP’d The Barber of Little Rock; the Erin Lee Carr-helmed The Ringleader: The Case of the Bling Ring (HBO) and Fanatical: The Catfishing of Tegan and Sara (Hulu); the adventure-exploration multi-film series Unknown (Netflix); the moving feature I Am Vanessa Guillen (Netflix) on the investigation and watershed activism surrounding the missing and murdered Fort Hood soldier; the three-part docuseries Eat The Rich: The GameStop Saga (Netflix); the docuseries Murders Before the Marathon (ABC, Hulu) examining a link between the Boston Marathon Bombing and an unsolved triple murder years earlier; the landmark feature Becoming Cousteau (Nat Geo) on the life of the iconic underwater explorer; the three-part series Nuclear Family (HBO) telling the extraordinary story of a first- generation lesbian family’s fight to stay together; the explosive feature Britney vs Spears (Netflix) investigating the story of Britney’s public and private fight for freedom; and the five- part series Children of the Underground (FX, Hulu) chronicling the story of an embattled vigilante who made it her mission to help alleged abuse survivors where others had failed. Other projects include I’ll Be Gone in the Dark (HBO), The Innocence Files (Netflix), All In: The Fight for Democracy (Amazon), Mayor Pete (Amazon) and Fauci (Nat Geo). Announced forthcoming projects include a Billie Jean King documentary co-directed by Liz Garbus and Elizabeth Wolff for ESPN and series for Roku and Prime Video. Story Syndicate also has a first-look scripted television deal with Tomorrow Studios, a partnership with ITV Studios.
Muck Media
Muck Media is an Emmy, Peabody and duPont Award-winning production company founded by five filmmaker best friends. Curious about the world, Muck tells entertaining, diverse stories about real people doing extraordinary things. Muck approaches their character-driven storytelling with a journalistic background, spotlighting underdog narratives that resonate with powerful, universal insights sure to inspire audiences. Nominated for 21 Emmys in 2024, Muck’s recent projects include the Emmy Award-winning Science Fair: The Series (Disney+/National Geographic), inspired by the Sundance Festival Favorite and Emmy Award-winning feature documentary of the same name; the five-time Emmy Award-winning series Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller (National Geographic), about global black markets and underworlds; the critically acclaimed feature American Pain (CNN Films/Max), about the rise and fall of twin brothers from Florida who ran the biggest prescription opioid trafficking network in U.S. history; and the Sundance documentary Mucho Mucho Amor (Netflix), about the beloved Puerto Rican astrologer Walter Mercado.
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Contacts
Contact For National Geographic Documentary Films:
Nadia Ahmadein, Nadia.Ahmadein@natgeo.com