| Resolved | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Greg Whiteley |
| Produced by | Greg Whiteley |
| Written by | Greg Whiteley |
| Starring | Sam Iola Louis Blackwell Richard Funches Matt Andrews |
| Cinematography | Tristan Whitman Liam Dalzell Brad Barber Greg Whiteley |
| Editing by | Tom Runquist Greg Whiteley Brad Barber |
| Release date(s) | June 23, 2007 (Los Angeles Film Festival) |
| Running time | 91 min |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Resolved is a 2007 documentary concerning the world of high school policy debate. The film was written and directed by Greg Whiteley of New York Doll fame.[1] The film captured the "Audience Award" title at its debut on June 23, 2007 at the Los Angeles Film Festival.[2] The film was produced by One Potato Productions.[1] The film made its television debut on HBO in the summer of 2008 and subsequently received 2 Emmy Nominations: one nomination for Best Documentary; the other for Editing for the 2009 Emmy Awards held in September, 2009. In July 2009 it was released on DVD by Image Entertainment.
Contents |
In today's world of high school policy debate, successful debaters fly through academic research and facts at a pace of 400 words per minute by utilizing a strategy known as the spread. As a result of the spread, the ability to understand a round of policy debate by a lay person has decreased significantly since the spread's development during the 1960s.[3] With debate rounds now filled with specialized jargon, the accessibility and value of a debate round in increasing public discourse has also decreased. Today, high-powered rounds at national competition and the Tournament of Champions are contested almost exclusively by wealthy students of noteworthy private schools. Resolved begins by focusing on the careers of Matt Andrews and Sam Iola, the former a stand-out rising sophomore and the latter a rising senior famous within the policy debate community.[2] The team of Iola and Andrews hails from Highland Park High School, a recognized national debate power from Texas. From there, Whiteley shifts his focus to Louis Blackwell and Richard Funches of Jordan High School in Long Beach, California. By contrast, Jordan High's debate team is underfunded, and the school is a public high school with only 12-18% of its students going on to a four-year college.[3] In an underdog style victory, the team of Funches and Blackwell capture the California state championship. Once the team from Long Beach has won the state championship while playing by the conventional rules of modern policy debate, the team is introduced by their coach Dave Wiltz to Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed. From there, the team from Jordan High changes their debate strategy, arguing against the current strategy used in high school debate, and using Freire's work to show the oppressive nature of the spread and the structure of debate as a whole. Along these lines, Jordan High's team chooses to read slowly and focus on persuasion rather than pure quick argumentation. At the end of the documentary, however, they are defeated by a "traditional" team- Rahul Hirani and Tim Jurka from Saint Francis High School (Mountain View). The judge defends his decision by stating that the Jordan High team convinced him that the structure of debate is flawed, but then the debaters went on to use the very structure of debate to continue to defend their arguments. Thus, their arguments were not consistent. They attempt to qualify for the tournament of champions, but this loss effectively curtails this dream. Moreover, one of the debaters is suspended, further ending any hope to this chance. In addition to the social message, Resolved involves commentaries from Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, Jane Pauley, and Juan Williams.[3]