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Jennifer Tiexiera and Guy Mossman’s documentary “Speak” follows five American teenage speech competitors, whose dream is to win the Super Bowl of public speaking – the National Speech & Debate Association Nationals.
The eclectic cast of student orators are Noor, Noah, Sam, Mfaz, and Esther, the two-time reigning national champion in Oratory. The doc blends snippets of each teen’s personal lives with their individual preparation for 2024 NSDA Nationals.
Each of the film’s participants are not only articulate, but also passionate about the state of the world. The topics they choose to write about are political and social hot-button issues. The doc premiered in January at the Sundance Film Festival. Variety’s film critic Murtada Elfadl wrote that “Speak” “is so rousing and audience-friendly, it plays like the nonfiction equivalent of ‘Bend It Like Beckham,” or “A League of Their Own.”
Executive produced by Josh Gad, “Speak” has been on the fest circuit for the last five months. Most recently, the film screened at the 27th annual Sarasota Film Festival.
Variety spoke to Tiexiera and Mossman about finding the film’s subjects, why they made the doc, and their hopes for distribution.
How did you discover competitive speech, and did you know right away that you wanted to make a doc about it?
Mossman: I discovered the world of competitive speech in 2019. I was tired of seeing crotchety old men dominating the political conversation on TV. When I discovered these young savants in competition, I felt like the world needed to see them. To be honest, I wanted “the adults in the room” to be shamed by them. Imagine a government where people actually listen to each other and legislators know what the hell they are talking about? Many of our elected leaders have lost their way, and these kids can remind us of what we’re capable of. I felt like I had no choice but to make this film or series or whatever it was destined to become.
How did you determine which teens to follow?
Tiexiera: It was a very in-depth casting process. We had been working with the NSDA from the very beginning, so they were very helpful in getting us the original list of kids – 400-plus – who would be attending the Nationals in 2024. From there, we spent six months narrowing down that list from 100 to 60 to 30 to 12, and eventually our final five.
Mossman: Unlike more competition documentaries, we wanted to spend a lot of time with our participants off-stage, at home, so we could bring their “heart stories” in their speeches to life. It was a very time-consuming and painstaking process, but we had a great team, and luckily for us, every interview we did with a speech competitor was fascinating.
Why did you want to make this film?
Tiexiera: I had just wrapped my series “Unveiled” for HBO, and I was in a very dark place. The series told the stories of the survivors of La Luz del Mundo, all of which I cared very deeply for, as they processed their abuse and navigated the trial of the institution and its leader. At one point in the process, I was in therapy two to three times per week, and I knew my next project would need to be something really healing. That’s when Guy sent me a video of Esther performing her championship-winning speech in 2023. I couldn’t believe this girl was only 16 years old and was so brilliant, I was hooked.
Mossman: I was a teacher before I became a documentary cinematographer and filmmaker, and I thought this would be the most entertaining way to help make education and empathy great again.
What are you hoping audiences take away from the film?
Tiexiera: The importance of listening and respecting one another. Esther has one of the most important lines in the film when she says, “Being in a room with hundreds of students over my speech and debate career has allowed me to have an ear to listen. I don’t always agree with everyone’s speeches, but I can see their perspective in how they get there.” I love this.
Mossman: We would love it if parents and education advocates demanded that programs like this be available in all school districts around the country. Now that the Department of Education is being dismantled and research grants are being decimated, we hope this film will inspire action and motivate people to write their elected leaders.
Have you found a distributor?
Tiexiera: We have not. It’s been really slow going for a lot of us after Sundance, but between festival screenings and a very robust impact campaign, which includes a lot of high school/university screenings, we will get this film to audiences.
Mossman: This is the $1.5 million question for 99.9% of documentaries hitting the market now. We hope that as the film builds momentum on the festival circuit with a few awards, it will move the needle with distributors.
