News
The brand-new Tenth Anniversary
Director's Cut DVD is now
on sale at Amazon !
So Awesome.
Remarkably, it has now been ten years since we filmed the 2005 National Tournament, the basis for the documentary. To celebrate, we are now issuing a brand-new Tenth Anniversary edition. The new edition contains a never-before-released Director's Cut of the movie, ten minutes longer than the original. It also contains a second Special Feature DVD full of nearly two more hours of brand new footage, deleted scenes, and original cuts. The new, previously-unreleased debates include a clash of civilizations between the West Georgia Liberation Front and Michigan State, the full cross examinations from the Berkeley v. Harvard semi-final round at Nationals, fascinating and painfully honest commentary about the rise of kritical teams, and the legendary Klinger versus Reddy final round showdown at USC with subtitles and on-screen flow.
The new Tenth Anniversary edition is now available for sale at Amazon. Note that Amazon has not yet changed its description of the DVD (we're working on it). And based on the Amazon description, it looks like you're buying the old Limited Edition not the new Tenth Anniversary. Do not worry. The old Limited Edition is GONE. You can't buy it if you wanted to. The ONLY DVD for sale is the Tenth Anniversary, regardless of how it is described by Amazon. Please tell friends. Please support the arts. Pick up a copy!
Click Here to Order the Tenth Anniversary DVD now.
What? There's a DEBATE NOVEL too?
Okay, so here's sort of a crazy thing. A long time ago, the director of the documentary wrote a novel about intercollegiate debate. The Novel, set at UC Berkeley in the 1990s, is now available for sale through Smashwords and Amazon for Kindle. It's pretty awesome if we do say so. Please support the arts by buying a copy!
So it's hard to believe there is so much cool debate stuff but there it is. Read the novel, watch the DVD, and send us your feedback!
Debate Team on the IMDb!
We are now officially recognized by the Internet Movie Database! Please visit the IMDb here and rate the movie 10 stars! Only with your help can Debate Team fulfill its promise for documentary world domination.
Debate Team is Reviewed by the Chronicle!
Check this out. We got a review in the San Francisco Chronicle! The Chronicle's rating system uses a "little man" icon. If the little man has left his seat that's one star. If he's sleeping that's two stars. If he's awake and watching, that's three stars. If he's applauding, that's four stars. And if he's applauding wildly, that's five stars. Well the little man in our review is applauding! DEBATE TEAM got a four out of five star review! This is what the Chron says:
Bay Area filmmaker B. Douglas Robbins takes us inside the kill-or-be-killed world of obsessive arguers . . . . [T]he film is . . . an often compelling, and even scary, look at people who spend hours and hours without sleep or showers, researching topics and amassing files of data . . . ."
So that's pretty freaking cool. Check out the whole review here.
Debate Team on Public Television!
Debate Team made its television broadcast premiere on KQED, public television for the San Francisco Bay Area, in July 2009. KQED even cut their own trailer of the movie. It's not the official trailer, found on this website, but it's still pretty cool, I have to admit. Check out KQED's short trailer here!
Does Debate Actually Teach Persuasion?
Legendary debater Tejinder Singh has just written an article exclusively for the DEBATE TEAM website. It asks, does the competitive aspect of debate actually make it less educational? Singh talks about the tension in debate between winning and learning. This sounds sort of boring right? No. It's freaking amazing. Singh talks about his own debate experience and how after exiting the activity to go to Harvard Law School, he discovered he was not the badass rhetorician he thought he was. And why not? Because there are subtle pressures in debate that actually discourage debaters from mastering the art of persuasion. Read the article here and prepare to be rocked.
More Press!
Even cooler, the Director, Douglas Robbins did a radio interview on KALX, about the documentary, and got some cool press from FilmClick. This is part of what FilmClick had to say:
Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of debate, is a popular metaphor that coaches use to train winners: you have to be able to kill a puppy. This metaphor captures the ruthless, heartless attitude that debaters strive to achieve. This documentary is equally shocking and entertaining as it takes an unforgettable look at competition at its most intellectual and yet most vicious state.