Media literacy and Louder Than a Bomb

Introduction

The following is a review of the documentary film Louder Than a Bomb. It chronicles youth involved in Chicago’s city-wide slam poetry competition. The film shows that even as ever-connected as we are through cell phones, the Internet and Web 2.0 applications, we still only live within out own communities. I saw this film on February 5, 2011 at a screening in downtown Chicago. I was lucky enough to be there on a night when the filmmakers, founder of the poetry competition, a poetry team coach, and two of the student slammers were in attendance. What follows is a mix of my reactions from the film and the comments of those involved in making it.

Find out more about Louder Than a Bomb.

The most important step in helping youth to find and improve their level of media literacy is engagement. Anyone who works with youth will be inspired by the engagement that happens in the movie Louder Than a Bomb.

Just like with any form of full literacy, this movie features teens creating their own forms of slam poetry. The format displays their knowledge of not only the written form, but also of performance and bringing the written word to life. Many may remember dry lessons on the different types of poetry from school, where the words of long-dead authors were read and then forgotten. The difference between that poetry and this poetry is the life the students put into it.
By the fact that the poems are written by youth and set to the powerful rhythms the students determine, make this a great piece to serve two purposes. One is to inspire reluctant readers with the power of words. Another would be as a film for youth to watch and analyze.

Possible topics for discussion could include: how does being filmed change the ways that people act? How does a documentary filmmaker choose his subjects? How much editing takes place in the making of a movie like this? How does the film make you identify with its characters? Would the film be as engaging if it were just footage from Louder Than A Bomb?

During a question and answer session following the screening of the movie on Saturday Feb. 5, at the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago, filmmakers Jon Siskel and Greg Jacobs stated that they edited the documentary from 356 hours of footage. The film focuses on poetry slammers from four schools in the Chicago Area. Oak Park and River Forest High School, Whitney Young Magnet High School, Northside College Prep and Steinmetz High School. Originally the filmmakers shadowed the poetry slam teams at 12 schools before they narrowed it down to the four featured teams. The film follows up with the Steinmetz team the year after they won the city-wide poetry slam competition, known as Louder Than A Bomb. The most charismatic slammer at each of the other three schools is also featured in the movie.

A great takeaway from the movie is the power of the underdog. All the schools but Steinmetz are consistently ranked among the top twenty public high schools in the state. Steinmetz has a 50 percent drop out rate. The Steinmetz coach, James Sloan, said after the February 5 viewing, “We went in 2006 and saw it (the Louder Than a Bomb Competition). At the time our poetry club was just about writing, we didn’t have (performance) yet. We decided it was a goal ---- there weren’t schools like us there --- it became our motivating goal.”

Since the students were engaged and the poems are in their voices, there are no holds barred. Like the best in young adult fiction books and the songs and movies teens identify with most, the topics of the poems are real. Nova, a poet from Oak Park and River Forest High School, speaks about her role in raising her special needs brother and her anger towards her divorced parents. The Steinmetz team performs a poem about a 7 year-old gunned down by gang members who mistake him for his older brother, their rival. Adam, a student from Northside, talks about the segregation and racial hatred alive in Chicago, America’s most segregated city. Nate, a student from Whitney Young, discusses his journey through poetry and what he hopes for I the life of his nephew.

I think the most important thing the movie brings up is the importance of perspective. As library and media professionals, our goal is to empower youth to find their own voices and filter the voices in the media landscape around them. Even though we are ever more connected, we are likely to only be in contact with those who are like us. At the close of the film, Lamar, a student from Steinmetz points out that the point of the poetry slam was to meet people he otherwise wouldn’t have met.

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