For nine years, the so-called Johns Committee -- created by the Florida Senate in 1956 and led by Sen. Charley Johns -- harassed organizations and individuals across Florida. Eventually, its attentions focused on alleged homosexuals at state universities, particularly the University of Florida.

By 1963, the committee's investigations had resulted in more than 39 professors and deans being dismissed from their positions at UF, Florida State University and the University of South Florida. Even more students were expelled or forced to leave.

Most people have never heard of the Johns Committee, officially titled the Florida Legislative Investigation Committee. But a new documentary is shedding new light on the story.

"It's an important part of Florida's history," said Allyson Beutke, co-producer of the 30-minute documentary. Though it is rarely taught, "there is also this dark side or this dark part that's kind of hidden away and you never really hear about it."

The Johns Committee was created to investigate organizations that might advocate or incite violence and violations of state laws. Under this broad commission, it began investigating the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in the late 1950s to attempt to establish communist links.

These attempts proved unsuccessful, and the committee later refocused its efforts on homosexuals. This effort was concentrated most heavily in state universities, particularly UF. Committee investigators would pull students and professors from classes to be questioned about their sexual histories.

"There were a lot of threats on academic freedom," said Jim Schnur, an Eckerd College professor who has extensively studied the Johns Committee. "A lot of people's lives were destroyed."

Beutke said "Behind Closed Doors" is the first documentary to tell the whole story of the Johns Committee's work at UF.

For example, Sigmund Diettrich, head of the UF geography department at the time, was investigated by the committee and forced to resign in 1959 by UF President J. Wayne Reitz.

Art Copleston, a 25-year-old gay student at UF in the late 1950s, speaks in the film about being pulled out of classes by uniformed police officers for interrogations about his homosexuality.

Merrill Mushroom, a lesbian UF student around the same time, was approached by police wanting to make her an informant about her lesbian friends.

"Behind Closed Doors" weaves their stories together through interviews and documents from the time.

Beutke pointed out that one of the documentary's more controversial aspects is the negative light in which it casts Reitz.

Reitz has been criticized for accommodating committee investigators as they intimidated and spied on students and faculty. The documentary explores the role he played with excerpts from correspondences between Reitz and Johns.

Beutke stumbled across the Johns Committee while searching for possible documentary subjects. As she learned more, she was surprised that she had never heard of the Johns Committee before. "I was shocked," she said. "I thought surely somebody's done something about it."

Beutke co-produced the documentary with fellow UF graduate student Scott Litvack as a requirement for their master's degree program.