When a gay screenwriter who’s dismissive of the MeToo movement is subpoenaed to testify on behalf of a friend who’s suing their high school drama teacher over an affair he had with her when she was underage, he winds up taking over his teacher’s class and falling for a student himself.

SYNOPSIS:

AUSTIN FILM FESTIVAL COVERAGE STATUS: RECOMMEND (rarely given). “The writer manages not only to get at the messy, complicated business of hormones and high school in a way that strikes the reader as fresh, but also gives the narrative a measure of timeliness with the #metoo angle. It really sneaks up on you how smart, precise, and effective this script is about the subject of teachers crossing the line with their students. There's obviously an abuse of power taking place, but the raw power of DRAMA DEPARTMENT is how it shows the scenario is also more complicated than that.”

Kevin Bartol’s take on #MeToo: “I know! I’ll blame all my problems on that guy who looked at me the wrong way at that party twenty years ago.”

You might think a married gay screenwriter would be more “woke” in his worldview, but Kevin is a tough-talking, unemotional guy, who writes action movies and seems to be hiding a painful secret.

When he’s subpoenaed to be a witness for his friend Jacqueline, who’s taking their high school drama teacher to court over a relationship they had twenty years ago, Kevin is forced to return to his Washington State hometown, where he begins to bond again with Jacqueline.

On a midnight visit to the school grounds, however, Kevin’s buried memory flashes of being bullied there are interrupted by Ned, who asks him to be a character witness for him at the trial. Although he feels sympathy for his “canceled” teacher, Kevin feels obligated to help Jacqueline, even though he still doesn’t really “get” how this affair constituted a crime against her.

Then he’s invited to speak to Ned’s senior acting class, and as he grows into the role over subsequent visits, he begins to develop an attraction to Trevor, a student who reminds him of his younger self. When Trevor makes the bold move of kissing Kevin on the lips, Kevin pushes him away, but finds himself in a tailspin of desire that leads him to tell Ned he will defend him in court.

But in the courtroom, the repetitive pounding of the judge’s gavel brings Kevin’s memories to full bloom, as he recalls being viciously queer-bashed with a baseball bat at the age of 17. He breaks down on the stand, the first time he’s ever told anyone about the incident. And this causes him to see Trevor, and Ned, and Jacqueline, in a new light, and to switch sides back to supporting his friend, whom he now understands to have been deeply wounded at an age when they were both naïve and vulnerable.