Sally

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.

Lauren Cioffi is a documentary creative producer and a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures. She recently produced the HBO documentary series “Love Has Won: The Cult of Mothergod,” executive-produced by the Safdie brothers with their banner Elara Pictures, and she was a leading creative executive producer on the eight-part series “Pop Star Academy,” which premiered on Netflix in 2024 with Boardwalk Pictures. Her recent producing work also includes the Emmy-nominated feature documentary “Becoming” on Netflix, about former first lady Michelle Obama with Higher Ground Productions and director Nadia Hallgren. She produced renowned visual artist and filmmaker Garrett Bradley’s three-part documentary series “Naomi Osaka,” with SpringHill Entertainment for Netflix in 2021.

Cioffi worked closely with filmmaker Liza Mandelup on their first award-winning feature documentary, “Jawline,” which premiered on Hulu to great acclaim. She produced the documentary feature “Civil” with Nadia Hallgren and executive producers Kenya Barris and Roger Ross Williams on Netflix in 2022. Her documentary short “After Maria” was shortlisted for an Academy Award® in 2019, and her nonfiction work has premiered at film festivals worldwide. Cioffi began her documentary career on the Feature Programming Team at the Sundance Film Festival, developing a keen eye for curation and discovering new filmmakers with whom she would go on to partner creatively as an independent producer.

Dan Cogan is one of the most prominent nonfiction producers working today. Both an Academy Award®- and Emmy Award-winner, Cogan founded Story Syndicate with Liz Garbus in 2019. Previously, he was the founding executive director of Impact Partners. He has produced more than 150 films and series, including “Icarus,” which won the 2018 Academy Award® for Best Documentary Feature; “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?,” which won the 2019 Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary; “The Cove,” which won the 2010 Academy Award® for Best Documentary Feature; “The Apollo,” which won the 2020 Emmy for Outstanding Documentary; and “Harry & Meghan,” which set Netflix documentary viewership records.

Jon Bardin is the head of Documentary and Nonfiction at Story Syndicate. An Emmy-winning producer, Bardin oversees the creative development of Story Syndicate projects as well as the creative execution of all projects in production. In this role, he is responsible for developing and creatively overseeing all of Story Syndicate's nonfiction series, feature documentaries, and podcasts. Prior to joining Story Syndicate, Bardin served as vice president of Documentaries and Specials at Discovery Channel.

Dr. Tam O’Shaughnessy is an educator, writer and former professional tennis player who joined with her life partner, trailblazing astronaut Sally Ride, to cofound the science education company Sally Ride Science. Tam has been fascinated by science since she was a little girl. One of her favorite childhood memories is of watching tadpoles in a creek gradually sprout legs, turn green, and morph into frogs. Growing up in Southern California, Tam competed in junior tennis under the coaching and mentorship of Billie Jean King, then a rising star. Tam was 12 when she met Sally at a tournament, and they became fast friends. Tam played tennis professionally from 1971 to 1974, on the first-ever women’s pro tour, competing at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open and ranking as high as No. 52 in the world.

After her tennis career, Tam earned a bachelor’s and master’s degrees in biology, and for a time, she taught college biology in Atlanta. Tam reconnected with her girlhood friend Sally, then in the spotlight as America’s first woman in space. The two began a romantic relationship that lasted 27 years until Sally’s death from pancreatic cancer in 2012. After Sally retired from NASA, she and Tam moved back to California, where Sally became a physics professor at the University of California San Diego. Tam, who had become interested in how children learn, earned her doctorate in school psychology at UC Riverside and then joined the faculty at San Diego State University. In 2001, Tam and Sally teamed up with three colleagues to start Sally Ride Science. Their goal was to create innovative programs and publications to spark the interest of girls and boys of all cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) and to inspire them to envision themselves as scientists and engineers. Sally Ride Science carries on its mission as a nonprofit based at UC San Diego, with Tam serving as executive director. In 2026, Sally Ride Science will celebrate its 25th anniversary. Tam has written 14 books for young readers, including “The Third Planet,” co-written with Sally, which won the 1995 American Institute of Physics Children’s Science Writing Award, and “Sally Ride: A Photobiography of America’s Pioneering Woman in Space,” which was nominated for the 2015 Kirkus Prize for Young Readers’ Literature.