Lesbian filmmaker to make documentary on gay athletes

Dee Mosbacher, a California psychiatrist and 1995 Academy Award nominee for the documentary short Straight From the Heart, is making a series of documentaries about gays and lesbians in the world of sports. Mosbacher will attend the National Gay and Lesbian Athletics Conference, to be held in Boston, March 28-30, to shoot the films. "The National Gay and Lesbian Athletics Conference is giving me the chance to explore things that I have always wanted to include in a discussion of homophobia in sports," she says. "When I was a kid, a shrimp at 5 foot 2, I played basketball and was even named all-conference in my league, and I really learned a lot from sports," Mosbacher says. "I stopped when I got to college, and I wasn't conscious of it, but looking back, I realize that part of the reason I quit was because I didn't want to be labeled a lesbian. As I got older and thought about this, I also realized that this is still going on today." Mosbacher hopes her next video can break down myths and "facilitate a discussion on homophobia and get people to use the medium of video to do that." Her documentaries are less than 30 minutes long and come with study guides. She creates the videos specifically for classroom and community discussions. Her videos can be ordered at www.woman-vision.org.