"Burning Blue" takes us back in time when gays and lesbians could not serve openly in the U.S. Military.
"I think what's important is that people will see what happened so this will be some kind of record: what happened to the thousands of people that lost their careers, that were damaged in so many ways."
David Greer is a former navy pilot turned writer and director of "Burning Blue":
"I hope it will address the root of some of this homo ignorance, homophobia."
It is hard to imagine anyone better qualified to make a movie about gays in the military. Greer is the son of an admiral-and literally grew-up in the U.S. Navy. He discovered he was gay while on active-duty:
"I was completely blindsided by this thing that happened in my life where I actually fell in love with a colleague."
The man he loved-played in the movie by actor Rob Mayes-was killed and what made that tragedy even worse was:
"The simple fact of not being able to share that grief," said Greer.
To share it would have meant exposure as a gay man:
"I would have absolutely been thrown out of the military because it would have been evident why I was grieving."
So-the admiral's son followed the traditional advice to "write what you know"-and "Burning Blue" is the result.
"Burning Blue" is at the AMC Empire on 42nd street starting tomorrow and it's also available on i-tunes. It's a worthwhile film about a topic rarely discussed and offers a welcome relief from all those noisy summer blockbusters.