Brock McGillis

A documentary that follows Canadian-born defenseman Luke Prokop as he decides to become the first — and still only — professional athlete playing under contract to an NHL team to come out as gay. Growing up in Edmonton steeped in Canada’s tough, often homophobic hockey culture, and playing without gay role models throughout professional sports, Luke’s path to coming out of the closet has been neither easy nor obvious. The film charts Prokop’s personal journey against the backdrop of a professional hockey industry that has had, at best, an ambivalent relationship to diversity. As the film sensitively reveals, being publicly out certainly came as an earthquake to his family, especially his father Al, who as Luke’s mentor and sometime coach represents the most complex and moving relationship in the film.

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Of all North American professional sports, hockey is certainly the most conservative, traditional and tight-lipped. Athletes, their entourage, team owners, sponsors and journalists all adhere to a code of conduct that consists of only letting out information that helps to keep the sport's image golden. Marie-Claude Savard, who has covered the world of sport for over fifteen years, is setting out to uncover this hidden truth. Her quest is simple: to bring down the masks in order to clean up the world of sport and help it progress.

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In both amateur and professional sports, being gay remains taboo. Few dare to come out of the closet for fear of being stigmatized, and for many, the pressure to perform is compounded by a further strain: whether or not to affirm their sexual identity. Standing on the Line takes a fresh and often moving look at some of our gay athletes, who share their experiences with the camera. They’ve set out to overcome prejudice in the hopes of changing things for the athletes of tomorrow.

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