SlamNation . Austin Chronicle . 03-30-98

SlamNation

DIRECTED BY: Paul Devlin

REVIEWED: 03-30-98

Austin is no stranger to the phenomenon of poetry slams - that curious hybrid of onomatopoeia and Olympic competition - and indeed our city is represented in Devlin's documentary about the National Poetry Slam, alongside competing teams from Providence, RI; Berwyn, Il; and New York City; among others. Egos and wits rub shoulders and occasionally collide on the road to the finals in Portland, Oregon, although famed New Yorker Saul Williams keeps insisting that "It's not about the competition, it's about the poetry." Yeah, right. Devlin, who's better known for his ESPN2 extreme-sports coverage, frames the slams in a similar style, focusing on the most visually eclectic (we assume) of the entries, whether it's the Austin team's group action, featuring all four team members hollering out a hilarious paean to the cathode ray tube or similar outbursts from Providence, their chief competitors. It's an interesting mix, and Devlin's film captures the muted fury of competing poets like wasps in a mason jar: Leaves of Grass this ain't. Still, SlamNation feels a bit overlong, with minute detail given to the methods, practice, and explanation of the history (beginning at Chicago's Green Mill Jazz Club) of poetry slams. That aside, Devlin nicely captures the frenetic, poetry-as-warfare pace; it's fierce, hilarious, brooding stuff, with nary a red rose or blue violet in sight.

--Marc Savlov

Capsule Reviews
SlamNation

Other Films by Paul Devlin
Slam Nation: The Sport of Spoken Word

Film Vault Suggested Links
Spice World
Wild Man Blues
Lenny Bruce: Swear to Tell the Truth

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