Kathleen Young had a daunting task: to take the larger-than-life legacy of Christa McAuliffe and condense it into a half-hour film.
“So many people were witness to it and were affected by it,” she said. “So when I looked at approaching it, I thought, ‘how do you make something so personal, collective? A collective experience?'”
Young, a producer at NHPBS, set out with two goals: to render the widespread impacts that Christa had not only on the Concord community but the world at large, and to celebrate her life rather than dwell on her death. The project itself, aptly titled “Christa,” stemmed from an idea that came out of the Governor’s commission working to establish the statue.
Archival footage from the Concord Historical Society allowed Young to bring Christa to life in her own voice. She also conducted over 20 interviews with former students, colleagues and friends of Christa’s, as well as leaders involved with the creation of her statute, unveiled outside the New Hampshire State House on Christa’s birthday in September of 2024.
“I had hours upon hours of footage to sift through, and I watched it all, and the ones that I chose definitely represent what I felt were most meaningful to who she was,” Young said.
Her documentary, funded in large part thanks to New Hampshire Humanities, introduces viewers to Christa’s teaching, her deep Concord connections and her widespread impacts. The film also chronicles the creation and erection of her State House statue a year and a half ago.
“I think it’s really powerful that she is an emblem of women, just her being the first woman on the State House lawn. I think also being an educator is really important,” she said.
Young interviewed renowned sculptor Benjamin Victor, who created the statue.
“He lives in Idaho, and he talked about how much he was touched by her,” she said. “So you can tell that…it does reverberate around the country, and we forget that here, because we just forget that other people were touched by her too.”
Throughout the process, Young felt struck by how many lives Christa changed through her advocacy not only for education and the teaching profession but also the importance of everyday individuals capable of extraordinary things.
“I think that is a fantastic legacy for a young student who is learning about history to see that somebody who was like them, just an ordinary citizen who’s, perhaps, a young girl who has a big dream, that they could do something that could be inspirational for other people,” she said.
From the start, Young knew she didn’t want any narration or voiceovers. She wanted the story to speak for itself.
The further she dove into Christa’s legacy, the more she could feel Christa’s emphasis on ordinary people. It became quickly evident what motivated the Concord High School social studies teacher to apply to go into space.
“She could have cared less that she, Christa, was being put on a pedestal,” she said. “She did it for her students, and she did it for the teaching profession.”
