Louder Than a Bomb

Louder Than A Bomb follows a few select groups of teenagers as they prepare for and then compete in a local spoken word poetry competition. As we watch them pursue their dreams, we share their laughter, their tension, their emotional suffering, their excitement and joy. This would be a great story in and of itself, except the story is not played out by actors but by real people living their real lives (think Hoop Dreams), making this sports story of sorts all the more engaging. We grow to know these teenagers and by the end we come to realize that the contest itself is actually irrelevant, that they have all matured by the experience and that they are all winners. Still, the excitement of the actual competition scenes, where these young poets are exhibiting more poetic talent than can be found within the pages of most of the so-called accepted poets, is nothing short of breath taking. This film is the definitive response to anyone who refuses to recognize the twenty-five year old poetry slam movement. The miracle of that movement is that even after all this time it still remains fresh, and nowhere is this better demonstrated than in Louder Than A Bomb.