The seeds of the film were sown last year, when Hall's story was included in an exhibit about gays in the military at a San Francisco museum.
"I was amazed at people's fascination and desire to know more about us," he said. Inspired, he began posting short biographies of USNA Out members on the group's Web site - "to show people who we are."
Months later, Hall attended the major gay film festival held annually in San Francisco, where he lives. He goes every year with friends, sometimes viewing as many as 50 films, and had often dreamed of contributing his own movie. The idea came to him "like two atoms colliding": Why not take some of the stories he had already been collecting and turn them into a documentary film?
Since July, Hall has been working full-time on the movie - tracking down subjects, conducting initial interviews, learning the craft of filmmaking and beginning to film. He has already spent $30,000 of his own money, choosing to turn down some offers of financial assistance, mostly because he doesn't want anyone to interfere with his vision.
In particular, he is determined to make a film that shows the Navy and the Naval Academy in a positive light. Though almost all the people he has spoken to in initial, off-camera interviews were forced out of the service or left because they did not want to continue under a policy they viewed as discriminatory and untenable, many - like him - are proud of their military histories and have a strong connection to their years in Annapolis.
"There are difficult times, difficult memories. But I would not change it. I would do it all over again because of the infrastructure of friends and support," said Linda Postenrieder, 48, who recently married her same-sex partner in California in a ceremony that several academy friends attended. Hall filmed the wedding.
While some alumni - particularly those who were kicked out - are bitter about what happened to them, that will not be the focus of the film, Hall said.
"I'm going to do everything I can to make sure the alumni look great. We're all products of the academy, and the academy does a really good job of developing people's character," he said. "I don't want to show dirty laundry."
Of the 36 people from around the country who have already agreed to be filmed, Hall is one of the few who retired from the military. He spent much of his Navy career on long sea tours, finally leaving the military in 1995.
