Feeling Seendirector Beth Ryne talks about the impact of TV on LGBT people. Watch the sizzle reel at the end of this post.

I have a friend, Melissa Jobe, who moved out to Los Angeles several years ago to pursue her dream of being an actor. If you went to much theater around DFW, you probably saw her; she worked in productions by Uptown Players, Casa Manana, Theatre Arlington and more.

Melissa Jobe

Mel is doing really well out there in LA; in fact, she just announced that she has been cast as Wallis Simpson in That Woman,a one woman play written by Scott Edward Smith that will debit at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland this August.

But that’s not what this post is about.

Mel also just posted a link on Facebook to the Kickstart page for a documentary called Feeling Seen,which her manager, Robin McWilliams, is producing with some other folks. It is a film about “impact of lesbian, bisexual, and trans/masculine representation in mainstream television.”

As the documentary’s director, Beth Ryne notes: “When I was a teenager, I didn’t know I could have the life I have now. I felt different and escaped in television, but my shame and fear deepened because everything I saw told me it was not ok to be a lesbian.”

But, she continues, that can change. It IS changing. TV has power: “It can uplift. It can empower. It can embolden.”

Here is the team, in addition to Ryne, behind Feeling Seen: Gretchen Landau, producer; Robin McWilliams, producer; April Webster, producer; Josh Auter, producer; Sam DelPilar, producer; Dan Cerny, contributing editor; and Gamie K., graphic designer.

And here are some of the other folks who are “attached” to the project: Adrienne Wilkinson from Xena: Warrior Princessand much more; Tony Award nominee Beth Malone from Fun Home; The Fostersshowrunners Bradley Bredeweg and Peter Paige; comedian D’Lo; comedian Gina Yashere,; One Day at a Time showrunners Gloria Calderon Kellett and Mike Royce; One Day at a Timeactress Isabella Gomez; comedian Jen Kober; comedian Julie Goldman; Nicole Da Silva from Wentworth; Sherri Saum from The Fosters; former Xenaexecutive producer and writer Steven L. Sears; and Trish Bendix, managing editor at Into, and former editor-in-chief of After Ellen.com and GO Magazine.

The project has a goal of $50,000, by Thursday, May 24, and they only have a little more than $3,000 to go. It is, according to the Kickstarter page, an “all or nothing” campaign, which means it will only be funded if it reaches that $50K goal by Thursday.

So don’t wait to visit the Kickstarter page and do what you can to help out. Watch the sizzle reel below.

(Oh and thanks Mel for bringing this to my attention, and just FYI, all of us back here at home are SO proud of you!)