IF the Poet follows Canadian slam poet IF (Ian French) on his journey to the 2014 Canadian Individual Poetry Slam Championship and through to the World Cup of Slam Poetry in Paris.
This documentary is a unique portrait of an aging artist on a scene dominated by younger and angrier poets. What makes IF stand out among these younger poets is his passion for the craft. As mentor and fellow slam poet Ian Keteku says in the film, “he works the hardest that I’ve ever seen a poet work.”
That is not to say that there is no passion in his competitors. The documentary also spoke with Porsha O. from the United States, and Catherine Belleau-Arsenault from Quebec. Both of these women have drive that is equal to IF’s, but they convey it differently. The brief shift in focus from IF to his competitors did not diminish the documentary’s power, and complemented contrasting the poets.
Aside from following the path IF took to the World Cup, the film also documents the evolution of a friendship between IF and Keteku. Early in the documentary their relationship is one between mentor and mentee, but after the Canadian Championships their relationship transforms into one of friendship and balance.
IF the Poet also manages to capture the feeling of spoken word and the importance of performance. When hearing the first lines of poetry IF speaks in the documentary, I was instantly covered in goosebumps, and in this moment I was taken back to the feeling when I first heard Allen Ginsberg read “Howl” — I needed to hear more.
This is what the documentary does expertly: it makes you want to hear more; not only of IF’s work, but also the work of the other poets that were briefly featured alongside him.
My initial reaction was that this film could have been longer, but thinking back to certain documentaries I have watched, I realized that I was mistaken. The pacing was perfect for the runtime; it was engaging, and even did what most films don’t — it quit while it was ahead. This kind of engagement left me wanting just enough that I was willing to seek out more of IF’s poetry.
IF the Poet is one of the best documentaries I have seen in a while, and I highly recommend it. While it might not dig deep enough for a hardcore follower of slam poetry competitions, for the majority of people it digs plenty, and may encourage some — like me — to dig deeper on their own.
