Don't Be Nice

2020 • 96 minutes

About this movie

The upstart Bowery Slam Poetry Team from NYC, made up of five young African-American, Afro-Hispanic and queer poets, prepares for the National Poetry Slam Championship during the Summer of 2016. Mentored by a demanding coach who pushes them past their personal boundaries to write from a painfully honest place, the poets break down, break through, and ultimately write their masterpiece. Timely and difficult, their spoken word slays—but will these soul-searching pieces about police violence and the whitewashing of Black culture be able to compete against choreographed crowd-pleasers for the title? Will opting to make a statement instead of a show spell their defeat? An emotional and inspiring film that gives insightful commentary on race, gender, identity and sexual politics in America today, Don't Be Nice is both an absorbing competition documentary and a vital writer's workshop that proves once and for all that winning hearts and minds is the ultimate prize.