Louder Than a Bomb

Louder Than a Bomb tells the story of four Chicago high school poetry teams as they prepare to compete in the world's largest youth slam. By turns hopeful and heartbreaking, the film captures the turbulent lives of these unforgettable kids, exploring the ways writing shapes their world, and vice versa. Louder Than a Bomb is not about "high school poetry" as we often think of it. It's about language as a joyful release, irrepressibly talented teenagers obsessed with making words dance. While the topics they tackle are often deeply personal, what they put into their poems - and what they get out of them - is universal: the defining work of finding one's voice.

Winner of eleven film festival prizes, including seven audience awards, Louder Than a Bomb has been hailed as "powerful and exhilarating" (TimeOut Chicago), "inspiring" (L.A. Times), "irresistible" (Chicago Tribune), "vibrant and moving" (The Wrap), and "a get-up-and-clap kind of movie" (Paste). Roger Ebert named Louder Than a Bomb one of the ten best documentaries of 2011, and the film received a perfect rating on rottentomatoes.com.