Words and Pictures (2013) on Netflix

Plot summary

Croyden is a college preparatory school in Maine that hires working professionals to teach its advanced courses. Jack Marcus, a poet who has published nothing new in years and drinks heavily, teaches writing, arrives late, and puts out the school literary magazine, which the administration wants to shut down for budgetary reasons. Dina Delsanto, a New York painter whose rheumatoid arthritis has made painting and even walking difficult, has just been hired to teach art to the same students. She has no patience for the written word and says images alone convey truth. When Jack hears that, he challenges her to a contest: each class argues whether words or pictures matter more, and both sides prepare to make their case before the school.