After police searched a classroom for a book in Great Barrington, John Tedeschi had to do something. He wrote a movie
John Tedeschi, right, plays the janitor at a middle school in the short film, “A Book By Their Cover.” Left, is Eva Ferreira, who plays Samantha Hartt. The film was inspired by a real incident in Great Barrington last year, in which a custodian at W.E.B. Regional Middle School went to police with sexually explicit photos from the book “Gender Queer: A Memoir.” Tedeschi wrote and directed the film.
STILL PROVIDED BY JOHN TEDESCHI
GREAT BARRINGTON — Part-time Stockbridge resident John Tedeschi could not believe what he was hearing by word of mouth last year.What appeared to be an attempt at a book ban at a Great Barrington middle school sent shockwaves across the community. The story went viral as national media outlets spread it.Horrified, Tedeschi leapt into action. He said to himself, “I’m going to write something.”“It turned out,” he added, “to be a film.”It was his first, and shot over three days in the Berkshires. Tedeschi, a New York City-based voice teacher who coaches musical theater and opera singers, had to learn the ropes quickly — and he did.That 30-minute short film, “A Book By Their Cover,” is about to have its first screening in the town where the incident happened.
IMAGE PROVIDED BY JOHN TEDESCHI
The film, which was inspired by a police search for a book in a Great Barrington classroom after school, will be screened at The Triplex Cinema on Thursday night. A conversation with Tedeschi and members of the cast and crew will follow.The first screening was at Images Cinema in Williamstown. The movie also has made rounds at film festivals, Tedeschi said. On Friday, a virtual screening will be held on the site, Eventive. It was learning of the Dec. 10 incident that set all this in motion.A night custodian at W.E.B. Du Bois Regional Middle School complained to Great Barrington Police that morning about some sexually explicit content he had seen in the illustrated novel, “Gender Queer: A Memoir,” in a classroom. The custodian brought photos of those pages to the police.An eighth grade English teacher kept the award-winning, coming of age book about sexual identity struggles in her class resource library. The teacher said it required her permission to be checked out.
But the custodian had also made other, more serious, allegations that the teacher had a student sit on her lap, and told students not to tell their parents about certain discussions at school. Police and the school superintendent said that’s in large part what led them to send a plain-clothed officer to the classroom after school, to both question the teacher and look for the book. The book was not in the classroom and the teacher did not know where it was.Police quickly dropped the investigation. The school district’s own investigation found that the custodian’s allegations against the teacher were baseless, and that he made them because he was disgruntled from the handling of another incident in which he was involved.
A firestorm ensued about the decision-making of police and school officials to allow the search, and raised questions about the role of police in the schools. The American Civil Liberties Union, Gov. Maura Healey and others condemned the actions.The teacher, who resigned earlier this year, sued the superintendent, the school district, the town and its police. That case is still pending in federal court.’FILMED IN THE BERKSHIRES’As word spread of the incident and fallout, Tedeschi attended a School Committee meeting about it, and soon, his project took shape. His interest was in expressing the importance of having books like “Gender Queer” available to young people grappling with sexual identity questions on top of the challenges of being a “tween.”“These books need to be available as a resource for young people and young queer people,” he said, “And if they aren’t, it becomes this sort of taboo, shame, covert situation, which can actually cause more problems than if they were just allowed to freely read the book.”While he does believe books should be age-appropriate, restricting access creates a “sort of a Catch-22” for those who think that restriction will be positive for those who might need such a book.The film follows a “tween” named Samantha, who is trying to understand her sexuality. She talks to her parents about not liking boys: “What if I like girls? What does it mean to be queer?”
Eva Ferreira plays Samantha Hartt, the “tween” student who is helped by a book that educates her about gender identity.
FILM STILL PROVIDED BY JOHN TEDESCHI
The film features scenes with her grandparents that were shot at Tedeschi’s Stockbridge home. There are multiple school scenes shot from 7 a.m. “to close to midnight” on a Saturday at Farmington River Regional School in Otis. Other locations included the Stockbridge Library, as well as Taft Farm in Great Barrington. (Taft Owner and CEO Paul Tawczynski, who is also an actor, plays a police officer.)In the fictional film version, Tedeschi swaps out “Gender Queer” for “The Every Body Book” by Rachel E. Simon.“The Every Body Book,” according to Amazon, “teaches children sex, gender and relationships education in a way that is inclusive of all sexual orientations and gender identities.”In the film version, a custodian sees Samantha with the book, then later takes it from her cubby. “Not on my watch,” he grumbles to himself. He goes to the school principal with it, then to the police.Who plays the custodian? Tedeschi himself.Tedeschi hopes the film will be educational. He hopes that it might give a glimmer of hope to the young who may be searching, and who will feel support the way Samantha eventually does in the movie. By the end, Samantha says she thinks she is “starting to feel a little bit better.”
