In an era where classroom interruptions and injustices can go viral with a tap on your smartphone, a new documentary looks to expose viewers to a time when discrimination at public universities was quietly encouraged.
The Committee aims to educate viewers on the Florida Legislative Investigative Committee of the State Legislature, which was dedicated to removing homosexual teachers and students from state colleges in the late 1950s and early 1960s. This secret group, led by Florida Senator Charles Johns and also known as the Johns Committee, was used to fire and expel over 200 students and teachers in state universities.“I think this is an important story because it is an example of law-makers who go too far, and that’s a story that speaks to any person at any time,” says Robert Cassanello, a director and producer for the film and history professor at UCF.
Cassanello links the “very real attack on transgender people” and lack of discrimination laws against the LGBT community as to reasons why it is important for the film to reach a national audience, although the film focuses on events in Florida.
“The lesson we are hoping for is that people fix themselves to say we need to press the government to be much more open to people than they are currently,” Cassanello says.
The film will play June 20 at 10 p.m. in Orlando on WUCF-TV and June 26 at 7 p.m. in the Tampa Bay area on WUSF-TV. The documentary will also air on 70 other local public television stations across the country throughout the month of June.
The documentary won awards at numerous film festivals when it premiered in 2012. This production of The Committee was revised to meet broadcast regulations and update content to reflect a greater picture of the Johns Committee story.
“We decided to update the film because in the film Rev. Ruth Jensen-Forbell (A Johns Committee victim) says ‘The only way the state can make it up to us is by making (same-sex) marriage legal,’” says Lisa Mills, a director and producer of the film and assistant film professor at UCF.
Since same-sex marriage became legal in Florida in January 2015, Mills said that film would have been inaccurate and out of date if it was not modified.
This alternate version of the film also emphasizes how the University of South Florida helped to bring down the Johns Committee by attracting media attention to the group.
The documentary features interviews with survivors of the Johns Committee, an integrator on the committee, former Florida governor and retired U.S. Senator Bob Graham, members of the Florida public school system and experts on LGBTQ affairs in the state of Florida.
Photos courtesy of The Committee website.
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