Up For Debate

Up For Debate

Directed by Judy Lieff
N.Y.C. teens model hope debating hot-button topics inside the largest urban debate league.
Website
Official Website
Other Links

Videos

Splash reel

Overview

Genre
Society, Contemporary Issues, and Human Interest
Synopsis

Can we agree to disagree? That's the big question in "Up For Debate," a documentary series from inside the largest urban debate league in the United States. Public, private, and charter school teens collide in dynamic debates. Fully "woke" to our broken political discourse, they think we can agree—and they're going to show us how.

As we see these debaters compete, we also explore their personal lives, their challenges, and their goals. Many of these students embody the self-same controversial issues they have to debate—immigration, social inequity, the criminal justice system, and a fractured and divisive society. And as we watch them, the parallels to their debates are inescapable and revelatory. These children are the answer. They are hope for the next generation of discourse.

Stage
in development

Credits

Production Details

Country
United States
Years of Production
3
Locations
New York

Distribution Details

Festivals
2019, IFP Film Week, DocNYC - Only in NY "Work-in-Progress" 2018
Awards
2020 NYC Women's Fund for Media, Music, and Theatre

Photos

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