Harvard Secret Court

In 1920, Harvard University convened a secret court to interview, charge and discipline students suspected of being homosexual. Thirty-seven men testified before the Court, including residents of Perkins Hall. After two weeks of testimony, eight Harvard men were forced to withdraw, one of whom committed suicide. The incident was kept secret for more than eighty years until The Harvard Crimson, a student newspaper, exposed the trial in November 2002.

Based on actual court documents, PERKINS 28: Testimony from the Secret Court Files of 1920 is a reenactment of the closed room trial. The nine episodes of testimony before the Court include Nathaniel Wollf, Harold Saxton, Kenneth Day, Edward Say, Joseph Lumbard, Keith Smerage, Stanley Gilkey, Eugene Cummings and Ernest Roberts.

Filmed in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Starring Harvard undergraduates. Written, produced and directed by Michael Van Devere. Copyright 2008 by Fabular Films.