Presented by VTIFF
Venue Host: Main Street Landing
A partnership between VTIFF and Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival
Directed by Max Powers
USA | 2017 | Documentary | 95 mins
Producer Nikhil Melnechuk in attendance for Q&A with Jay Craven and for a meet-and-greet at the Lake Lobby reception after the screening. Snacks and refreshments after the Q&A in the Lake Lobby – 6:45 – 7:30
Followed by the 2nd Best of MNFF screening: Ernie and Joe: Crisis Cops
The upstart Bowery Slam Poetry Team, made up of five young African-American, Afro-Hispanic and queer poets, prepares for the national championships. Mentored by a demanding coach who pushes them past their personal boundaries to write from a painfully honest place, the poets break down, break through, and compose their best work ever. Will their soul-searching pieces about police violence and the whitewashing of Black culture be able to compete against choreographed crowd-pleasers for the title?
Director’s Statement
Lauren Whitehead coaches the Bowery Slam Team with the credo “Don’t Be Nice.” She explains that to “be nice” is to stay on the surface of things, is to perpetuate the status quo, and is, for black people, to be what white culture demands. Her team of poets brave their inner demons and buck societal expectations to write truthful poems, and to ultimately celebrate black joy.
My goal has been to illuminate these poets’ words with as little obstruction as possible, bringing the revolutionary work they’ve done in expanding Slam Poetry to a wider movie-going audience. Where many succumb to the polarizing simplifications of click-bait headlines, these poets do difficult personal work to come to an understanding of their relationship to race and power, and courageously share it.