Arts & Entertainment

Chicago Filmmakers Make Noise With Poetry Slam Documentary

More than 600 students participate in the Louder Than a Bomb: The Chicago Youth Poetry Festival, and a film about the annual contest is making noise.

Spoken word, slam poetry, call it what you want--but the act of honest confession in your own voice can make men cry and kids laugh.

The documentary Louder Than a Bomb, which is screening at on Thursday, focuses on this kernel of humanity at the annual event by the same name. The poetry competition, Louder Than a Bomb, began at Chicago’s Metro in 2001 and has spread the art form to every major city in the past decade. Metro is a live concert hall on the northside of Chicago.

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“It was all a total accident,” said filmmaker Greg Jacobs, 42, on the ideation of the documentary, which has since won more than a dozen film awards. Jacobs and Jon Siskel, 44, of Siskel/Jacobsons Productions produced the 99-minute film.

“By coincidence I was driving by the Metro in March 2005, and on instinct looked at marquee,” said Jacobs. “It said Louder Than a Bomb with a line of kids down the block, who were incredibly diverse. It seemed like such a strange thing to see diversity on north side, and to see teens doing poetry for fun.”

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The pair spent about three years total on the film, with one year of development, one year of filming and two years of editing.  In the end, they had a nine-hour film to whittle down to four storylines.

“Because slam poetry started here, this whole thing feels uniquely Chicago, though the story that the kids are telling are universal,” said Siskel. “Kids are putting out there emotionally revealing personal stories, and most people would never imagine walking by this kid with these stories.”

About 90 schools are participating in this year’s Louder Than a Bomb competition, according to the filmmakers, and the program operates under Chicago Young Authors. Under a single spotlight and with a microphone stand, teenagers find their own voice through love, family and justice.

Although three of the schools featured in the film are Chicago Public Schools (CPS), the two filmmakers maintain that the documentary focuses on the contest itself, not the issues surrounding it.

“It’s not an issue or political film in any way,” said Jacobs. “We thought if we made a movie that was really entertaining, then people would start thinking about the issues.”

Since its release in 2010, people around the world have done just that, from Africa to the Middle East. Siskel and Jacobs, both from cable TV documentaries, described their delight with live audience reactions. Siskel mentioned the film’s first live screening in Cleveland, which earned them a standing ovation by the audience.

“Rewards are rich but in weird ways,” said Jacobs. “I remember being in Zambia and having kids applaud after hearing the first poem, and suddenly realizing that this is totally universal.”

The team discovered another universal plight, one of funding. Though grant and donations helped the movie along, “there’s a giant hole that needs filling,” as Siskel put it.

For now, the two plan to focus on distributing Louder Than a Bomb to as many places as possible. “We hope every audience will have teachers, and then [they can] make spoken word happen in their schools.”

“There were points where we’d say, ‘Hey this isn’t working,’” said Jacobs. “We’d solve the puzzle and suddenly it would be working again. So to have people appreciate it, on an emotional storytelling level, it’s great. It may not happen again.”

The free screening of Louder Than a Bomb is at 7 p.m. at 7 p.m. on Jan. 12 in the Gaffney Auditorium at , 386 Winnetka Ave. Jacobs and Siskel will attend as special guests, in addition to two slam poets and Kevin Coval, artistic director and co-founder of Louder Than a Bomb: The Chicago Teen Poetry Festival.

The auditorium, which houses more than 1,500 seats, is close to full-capacity.

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