“I’m developing a new theory (about documentary making),” says filmmaker and director Henry Corra, who’s new movie Same Sex America will be cablecast on Showtime beginning June 27.

“I really don’t see that much distinction in the end, between making fiction and nonfiction. You’re still shaping a story. Even though documentary making is about real people and their lives, you’re still telling a story. The method is different, but what you actually end up with is very similar.” Corra’s co-filmmaker and editor, Charlene Rule, agrees. “We created Same Sex America with a particularly strong narrative arc, like a traditional (story).”

While the film’s structure may be similar to fictional movies, Same Sex America follows seven extremely real gay and lesbian couples during Massachusetts’ historic attempts to legalize gay marriage.

“I had read about the Goodrich Decision in 2003, and thought, “Oh my god, this is a major drama that’s just right for filming,” says Corra. That decision by the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled that "to deny gays and lesbians the right to marry is to deny them dignity and equality under law." It was so historic that Corra was convinced dozens of filmmakers must have already begun making documentaries about it.

Nonetheless, he pitched the idea to Showtime, which green-lighted the film. Corra’s production company began shooting in February of 2004 during the Massachusetts’s constitutional convention, the state legislature’s first attempt to vote the Court’s decision down. Shooting continued through the first issuing of legal same-sex marriage licenses in Massachusetts on May 17, and Corra “locked picture” in January of this year.

And while the film is currently receiving accolades at festivals like the Full Frame Documentary Festival in South Carolina and New York’s Tribeca film festival, contentious debate on same-sex marriage continues.

Recently, Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney began courting conservative voters for a possible presidential run by endorsing a Massachusetts constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. A poll in nearby Maine showed that 48 percent of the participants opposed same-sex marriage, while 46 percent favored of it. And last year, a Los Angeles Times poll showed about a third of Californians favored same-sex marriage, about a fourth opposed any form of gay unions, and the rest fell somewhere in between.

It’s those “in-between people” that Corra and Rule are concerned with.

“I’m more interested in how the film touches the big middle in this country,” says Corra. The people like my dad, who aren’t overtly homophobic or against same-sex marriage, but who are maybe a little uncomfortable with it… I hope that this film touches those people.”

One touching story told in the film is about Lea, a young lesbian whose parents were vehemently opposed to same-sex marriage. Their paths collided at the Statehouse during the Constitutional Convention. “She didn’t know they were going to be there, and she was crushed,” says Corra. “She hoped they would at least sit on the sidelines and keep their opposition to themselves. But no, they had to come to the Statehouse.”

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