Gerard Shaka Symonette, Director, Writer 

Sloan Grant(s) Received: 2022, Florida State University, Student Discovery Award

Project Type: Feature 

Genre: Drama

Length: 120 pages

Field of Science: Biology

Stage: Development 

Synopsis: 

A hurricane rages in late June—Nassau, The Bahamas. With the electricity out, 7-yeard-old Dennis “Woodside” Woodside is dancing to music with his mother, Whitney, and his older cousin, Marvin. They accidentally wake Dennis Sr, who investigates and sees Woodside dancing, thinking he looks too feminine. Dennis beats Woodside with a rod of PVC pipe, quickly ending the fun.
Woodside, now 14, goes to summer camp. Dennis knows the area, having done the landscaping in the area years prior, so he takes Woodside. Woodside notices a house nearby with broken windows and graffiti. FAGGOT is spray-painted across the house. Outside, there’s a distressed-looking man with a colorful blanket staring at Dennis’ truck as they drive by. Dennis gives Woodside a warning look.
At camp, Woodside and all the guests are led inside by Ms. Pratt, a marine conservationist. Ms. Pratt makes note of the beautiful paintings on the wall, created by local artist Thaddeus Harl—all in a similar style.
Mangrove restoration is the project of the summer, and because ACE Bahamas wants to replant as many mangroves as they can so they can grown before the next year’s hurricane season. Woodside stares at the Thaddeus Harl paintings, haunted by them, but gets distracted by Donovan, a cute camp counselor.
Woodside and his friends, Gabby and Johnneisha, quickly integrate into their new surroundings, impressing Ms. Pratt, who is their camp counselor. Ms. Pratt loves Woodside’s charisma and even stands up to a bully for him. She teaches him so much about marine ecology and soon finds a genuine love for Woodside.
When Whitney finds out Dennis is cheating once again, there’s a huge argument that ends with Woodside and Whitney sleeping at grandma’s house. Whitney promises him that things will be different. They’re not. Woodside sneaks out with some of his gay friends to a party in an abandoned mansion. It’s a queer extravaganza hidden on the island. There, Woodside and Donovan let their guards down and flirt, having a good time together.
They’ve finished the entire beach project, and the mangroves are replanted. The kids are broken off into smaller groups, and Woodside is paired with Ms. Pratt. Woodside does his best to stay out of trouble and out of his father’s way. Dennis gets a new job contract from the government, and he takes the boys to a political party event in celebration, and it’s all fun, music and atmosphere. It’s here where Woodside notices Donovan. He follows Donovan and they sneak away, and Marvin catches them. In a flurry of emotions, Woodside is beside himself, tears flowing as Marvin berates him. Dennis finds out—and it’s terrible.
Dennis takes a terrified Woodside out into the back of the bushes near a beach in the pitch black of night. Here, he forces Marvin to beat Woodside mercilessly. Woodside takes each blow like a sacrificial lamb. And when they arrive home, Whitney denounces Woodside.
An exile in his own home now, Woodside stays to himself and tries to be as unnoticeable as possible. And when Woodside finds a Thaddeus Harl painting in Dennis’ shed, he steals it and runs away from home. He drops the painting off at Ms. Pratt’s door anonymously. She’s confused by it until she reads the back of it.
Woodside returns home the next day and confronts Whitney about being a complacent mother—about allowing Dennis to hit him. He disappears as quickly as he came, and Whitney calls Ms. Pratt, looking for him. As Woodside runs, he and Marvin see each other, but a tearful Marvin reads the look in Woodside’s eyes—he’s never coming back.
A final memory leads Woodside back to the graffiti’d house, revealing that years ago, he had once entered it. It was when he was a boy, and Dennis had told him to wait in the truck. But when Woodside when inside to find Dennis, he found him naked with a man—Thaddeus Harl. It’s the same man he’s been seeing outside the “faggot” house.
In the final moments, Ms. Pratt arrives at Woodside’s house and confronts Whitney and Dennis after she figures out the final piece of the puzzle. Ms. Pratt pulls out the portrait and reads from the back—a love note about Dennis. Thaddeus Harl, who was also Dennis’ lover, was her brother who committed suicide after being outed as gay a few years prior.
Woodside, now far from home and broken in two, walks into the oncoming hurricane and disappears in the mangroves.