Testimony

Its 2002--the height of the War on Terror panic--and Sam a life-long left-wing radical has had enough. He finally decides to stow his black ski mask and move to the uneventful mid-sized city of Springfield Illinois to settle down and sell out as a gas utility regulator. His plans to coast and collect a check however are complicated when the pipe of a major gas provider hes tasked with overseeing explodes killing a school janitor and sending an overfunded security apparatus and into full-on John Milius mode--looking for terrorists who arent there and using Homeland authority to mask their self-dealing.Soon Sam discovers the real problem isnt outside threats but a culture of casual negligence and an opaque system of charity and public-private partnership that diverts money away from public safety and into the pockets of government and corporate higher-ups. With the help of a sarcastic local reporter a kind but jaded office chum and a mix of other outcasts Sam realizes that going with the flow may come at too high a cost.Testimony isnt about One Great Man taking on the system but about one okay flawed person working with a rag-tag team of other okay flawed people to combat a system of cynicism and greed much bigger than them. Testimony is a sardonic political noir about corporate regulatory capture a mid-size city finding meaning in security theater and reluctant rediscovery of lost idealism.