''Resolved'' is a 2007 documentary film concerning the world of

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

policy debate Policy debate is an American form of debate competition in which teams of two usually advocate for and against a resolution that typically calls for policy change by the United States federal government. It is also referred to as cross-examinat ...

. The film was written and directed by Greg Whiteley of

New York Doll ''New York Doll'' is a documentary based on the life of former New York Dolls member Arthur Kane. It was nominated for both a Satellite Award and a Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, where it premiered in 2005. Synopsis The fil ...

fame."Resolved" on IMDb
/ref> The film captured the "Audience Award" title at its debut on June 23, 2007 at the

Los Angeles Film Festival The LA Film Festival was an annual film festival that was held in Los Angeles, California, and usually took place in June. It showcased independent, international, feature, documentary and short films, as well as web series, music videos, episod ...

.Variety's Review of Resolved
/ref> The film was produced by One Potato Productions. The film made its television debut on HBO in the summer of 2008 and subsequently received two 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.

Plot

''Resolved'' begins by focusing on the careers of Matt Andrews, Sam Iola, one a stand-out rising sophomore, one a rising senior famous within the policy debate community, respectively. The team of Iola and Andrews hails from Highland Park High School, a recognized national debate power from

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

and located in one of the state's wealthiest communities, where students are expected to attend college after graduation. From there, Whiteley shifts his focus to Louis Blackwell and Richard Funches of Jordan High School in Long Beach, California. By contrast to Highland Park, Jordan High's debate team is underfunded, and the school is a

public high school State schools (in England, Wales, Australia and New Zealand) or public schools (Scottish English and North American English) are generally primary or secondary schools that educate all students without charge. They are funded in whole or in pa ...

with only 12-18% of its students going on to a four-year

college A college (Latin: ''collegium'') is an educational institution or a constituent part of one. A college may be a degree-awarding tertiary educational institution, a part of a collegiate or federal university, an institution offering ...

.Hollywood Reporter
/ref> In an

underdog An underdog is a person or group in a competition, usually in sports and creative works, who is largely expected to lose. The party, team, or individual expected to win is called the favorite or top dog. In the case where an underdog wins, the ...

style victory, the team of Funches and Blackwell capture the

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

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 Paulo Reglus Neves Freire (19 September 1921 – 2 May 1997) was a Brazilian educator and philosopher who was a leading advocate of critical pedagogy. His influential work ''Pedagogy of the Oppressed'' is generally considered one of the foundat ...

's ''

Pedagogy of the Oppressed ''Pedagogy of the Oppressed'' ( pt, Pedagogia do Oprimido) is a book by Brazilian educator Paulo Freire, written in Portuguese between 1967–68, but published first in Spanish in 1968. An English translation was published in 1970, with the Por ...

''. 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 Persuasion or persuasion arts is an umbrella term for Social influence, influence. Persuasion can influence a person's Belief, beliefs, Attitude (psychology), attitudes, Intention, intentions, Motivation, motivations, or Behavior, behaviours. ...

rather than pure quick

argumentation Argumentation theory, or argumentation, is the interdisciplinary study of how conclusions can be supported or undermined by premises through logical reasoning. With historical origins in logic, dialectic, and rhetoric, argumentation theory, includ ...

. The team's strategies of using hip-hop music and arguing that policy debate is structured to disadvantage minorities were inspired by The Louisville Project. At the end of the documentary, however, they are defeated by a "traditional" team. 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 substantially curtails their dream. In addition to the social message, ''Resolved'' involves commentaries from Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito,

Jane Pauley Margaret Jane Pauley (born October 31, 1950) is an American television host, and author, active in news reporting since 1972. Pauley first became widely known as Barbara Walters's successor on the NBC morning show ''Today'', beginning at the age ...

, and

Juan Williams Juan Antonio Williams (born April 10, 1954) is a Panamanian Americans, Panamanian-born American journalist and political analyst for Fox News Channel. He writes for several newspapers, including ''The Washington Post'', ''The New York Times'', ...

Cast

*Louis Blackwell *Richard Funches *Jon Bruschke *Matthew Andrews *Sam Iola * Samuel A. Alito *Jane Pauley *

Josh Lucas Joshua Lucas Easy Dent Maurer (born June 20, 1971) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles in various films, including '' American Psycho'' (2000), '' You Can Count on Me'' (2000), '' The Deep End'' (2001), '' A Beautiful Mind'' (20 ...

*David Wiltz

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 1068161, Resolved Films about high school debate 2007 films Documentary films about education in the United States 2007 documentary films American documentary films 2000s English-language films 2000s American films English-language documentary films

Plot

Cast

See also

References

External links