SCOUTS DIRECTOR.

Tom Shepard, the gay filmmaker who documented Steven Cozza's crusade in the PBS film Scout's Honor, says he "had an inkling" the Boy Scout battle would be big

When documentary filmmaker Tom Shepard, who is gay, read an article in a local newspaper in 1998 about straight 13-year-old Steven Cozza and his campaign against antigay discrimination within the Boy Scouts of America, he recalls, "I was a little incredulous, to say the least." He was also intrigued and called Cozza's father, Scott, who invited Shepard up to their Petaluma, Calif., home.

"I was impressed with their level of conviction and how ordinary they were," the filmmaker says, "and I don't mean that in a derogatory way at all. I mean, Petaluma is not that far from the Bay Area, but the town lives to maintain this perception as Everytown, USA."

That visit launched a three-year-plus project that became the 60-minute documentary Scout's Honor. Funded by the Independent Television Service, the film grew to include the story of straight Petaluma scoutmaster Dave Rice, now 72, whom the BSA kicked out for his support of Cozza's campaign, as well as gay ex-scouts Tim Curran and James Dale, each of whom sued the BSA after being expelled. Shepard debuted the film in January at the Sundance Film Festival, where it won two top awards, and it will be broadcast nationally on PBS's P.O.V. series beginning June 19 (check local listings).

Shepard was originally a radio and print journalist who slowly moved to long-form documentary because, he says, it has the ability to tell a story emotionally: "A documentary has a narrative structure, and you can get people to open their hearts with it. You can't necessarily do that in a two-page article." When Shepard met the Cozza family, he knew they had all the hallmarks of a good documentary subject. "I had an inkling that something was going to happen," he says. "The two cases [Curran's and Dale's] were beginning to gather steam, and Steven had just joined forces with Dave Rice. I was really impressed by the unexpected alliances between them and the gay community. These groups are not normally considered [in the context of] gay and lesbian rights."

That unusual alliance, says Shepard, was the crux of the film, in which young Cozza is seen maturing from a crusading 13-year-old to a voice-breaking, still-crusading 15-year-old (when filming concluded in June 2000). "Few films look at what happens when nongay people speak on behalf of gays," Shepard says. Social movements are usually insular, but this film shows bridges being built between them. The gay rights movement has been critical in achieving some parity for gay people, but it seems to me that there is still a big divide."

Gay people, Shepard continues, "can have their own neighborhood--the Castro or West Hollywood or Chelsea--but there needs to be more democracy. And what better forum for that discussion than the Boy Scouts, whose tenets are all about fairness and defending the rights of all people? Their very tenets could bridge those gaps."

Shepard, who is now planning a documentary on immigration issues, notes that there, are now at least 800 gay-straight alliances in high schools across America. "What Steven is doing as a straight gay-rights advocate is not a vacuum," he says. "Why it resonates is that he's a normal kid. His parents have done a good job of letting him be a kid. Somebody in Iowa could watch the film and look at Steven and say, `I guess I could do something like that.'"

Goodridge is on staff at Screen International magazine.