“...pulls at our hearts with great vigour, whether it be through tears or righteous anger.”
— David Opie,
“Cinematically eloquent...Speak is enough to give you hope for Generation Z.”
— Frank Scheck,,
“This sure-fire crowd-pleaser by Jennifer Tiexiera (Subject) and Guy Mossman (Feels Good Man) will have audiences ready to cheer.....the film lays out everything on the table that the USA needs to tackle.”
— Pat Mullen,
“...it’s refreshing to be reminded about the power of oratory performance and to hear youth articulate their hopeful visions for the future, free from the cynicism and pessimism that can accompany growing up...SPEAK is a joyful recalibration about the power of dreaming, how sometimes the first step towards envisioning and bringing about a better world is to try and speak it into existence.”
— Zachary Lee,
“Rousing...The filmmakers capture [the participants] in a straightforward and unobstructed way that quickly makes the audience believers in what these kids are preaching”
— Murtada Elfadl,
“..an inspiring and deeply human exploration of ambition, resilience, and the power of words”
— Alex Reif,
ABOUT THE FILM
LOGLINE
Five top-ranked high school oratory students spend a year crafting spellbinding spoken word performances with the dream of winning one of the world’s largest and most intense public speaking competitions.
LONG SYNOPSIS
SPEAK follows five of the nation’s top teenage speech competitors, capturing the euphoria of victory and the devastation of defeat as they craft and perform original oratories over the course of a 9-month season. Their dream is simple: To win the Super Bowl of public speaking, the NSDA Nationals.
We witness them, their coaches and their parents as they fight to keep school speech programs alive amid budget cuts, book bans and censorship efforts that reach a fevered pitch during the 2024 election year.
The film begins at the 2023 National Speech and Debate Association (NSDA) Championships, introducing our eclectic orators: Noor, Noah, Sam, Mfaz and Esther, the two-time reigning national champion in Oratory. We follow them to the 2024 Nationals, where Esther hopes to beat the record set by SPEAK’s Executive Producer, Josh Gad, in 1999.
SPEAK captures the passion, joy—and courage—of unforgettable teens using their voices to change hearts and minds. This film is the perfect antidote for these fraught times—intense, funny, and most of all, hopeful.
Director Jennifer Tiexiera
Co-Director Guy Mossman
Producers Pamela Griner, Guy Mossman, Jennifer Tiexiera
Executive Producers Josh Gad, Simon Kilmurry, Lisa Hepner, Christoph Baaden, Abby Ellin, Joseph Wolfe, Polly Wolfe, Schultz Family Foundation, Hallee Adelman , Dawn Bonder , Daniel J. Chalfen, Marci Wiseman, Toby Nalbandian , Greg Schmidt, Sean Bradley, Lauren Lexton, Jenny Warburg, Jamie Wolf, Nathalie Seaver, J. Todd Harris, Melony and Adam Lewis, Andrea Van Beuren
Editors Delaney Lynch, Jennifer Tiexiera
Director of Photography Guy Mossman
Original Score Osei Essed
FESTIVALS
2025: Sundance (World Premiere)
AVAILABLE TERRITORIES
The World
EXHIBITION FORMATS
DCP, Digital Download
PRESS KIT
Download Press Kit
AVAILABLE PRESS IMAGES (click to preview)
