Extended excerpt from the documentary Louder Than a Bomb.
Louder Than a Bomb is a film about passion, competition, teamwork, and trust. It's about the joy of being young, and the pain of growing up. It's about speaking out, making noise, and finding your voice. It also just happens to be about poetry. A feature-length documentary, Louder Than a Bomb tells the stereotype-confounding stories of four Chicago-area high school poetry teams as they prepare for and compete in the world's largest youth slam. By turns hopeful and heartbreaking, the film captures the tempestuous lives of these exceptional kids, exploring the ways writing shapes their world, and vice versa. This is not "high school poetry" as we often think of it. This is language as a joyful release, irrepressibly talented teenagers obsessed with making words dance. Set against the backdrop of Barack Obama's historic primary campaign, Louder Than a Bomb paints a powerful and timely portrait of the Obama generation, from the heart of the president's hometown.