“Louder than a Bomb” is a film about passion, competition, teamwork and trust. It’s about the joy of being young and the pain of growing up. It’s about speaking out, making noise and finding your voice. It also happens to be about poetry.

Every year, more than 600 teenagers from more than 60 Chicago-area schools gather for the world’s largest youth poetry slam, a competition called “Louder Than a Bomb.” Founded in 2001, Louder Than a Bomb is the only event of its kind in the country—a youth poetry slam built from the beginning around teams. Rather than emphasize individual poets and performances, the structure demands that kids collaborate: presenting, critiquing and rewriting their peers’ pieces. To succeed, teams have to create an environment of mutual trust and support. For many kids, being a part of such an environment—in an academic context—is life-changing.

Over the course of a year, this witty documentary follows two urban, multiracial 11-year-olds as they explore their place in the food chain. Sadie and Safiyah talk to storekeepers, farmers, food activists, farmers to learn more about the origin of the food they eat, how it’s cultivated and how far it travels from farm to fork. The girls formulate sophisticated and compassionate opinions about urban sustainability, and by doing so inspire hope and active engagement.

Parkour – a movement discipline based on French military obstacle-course training – might be considered controversial, but seeing it is not. Cedric Dahl’s documentary follows five American parkour practitioners who share this passion for movement. Characterized as a physical “type of freedom,” “kind of expression,” and “state of mind,” parkour has influenced the stunts in action films from Bond to Bourne. But there’s much more to it than chasing the bad guy with acrobatic moves. As one practitioner comments, “If you listen to the movement it teaches us to touch the world and interact instead of being sheltered by it.”

This documentary directed by Rhode Island’s own Mitty Griffis Mirrer, a gold star child herself, takes an intimate look at American children who have lost a parent to war. The film follows the parallel journeys of two generations of grieving children:. Recent war orphans, who’ve lost parents serving in Iraq, Afghanistan and Bosnia, learn to heal alongside the now adult-child survivors of the Vietnam War. “Gold Star Children” gives meaning and shape to how America understands those who sacrifice in service to their country and the children and families they leave behind. National news channel CNN aired this film, which has been screened at festivals nationwide.

Set against the backdrop of the wolf reintroduction program in Yellowstone National Park, “Druid Peak” is a coming of age story about a troubled teenage boy who finds a home tracking wolves in the wildlands of Wyoming.

Sixteen-year-old Owen isn’t just rebellious—he’s a bully with a mean streak. Growing up in coal country West Virginia, he struggles against the claustrophobia of small town life, lashing out against school and family. But when his actions lead to the death of a friend, Owen is sent to live with his estranged father, Everett, a biologist on Yellowstone’s wolf reintroduction program.

At first, Owen wants no part of this new life. Then he comes face to face with a Canadian grey wolf. The creature’s deep, penetrating gaze startles him, stirring something long dead inside his own self. Sensing the first signs of change in his son, Everett encourages Owen to collect some basic data about the wolf he saw and its family pack–the Druid Peak pack. Owen’s small assignment grows into a passion and his own life becomes deeply tied to the Druid Peak wolves and their struggle for survival. When a change in government policy threatens the animals, Owen must decide how far he will go to protect the wolves, his father and the place he has finally come to call home. A coming-of-age story with a conservation twist, Druid Peak is a film about the human soul’s need for wild things, and the challenges of holding onto them.

Writer/director Marni Zelnick was awarded a $100,000 production grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for work on this film. Shot on location in West Virginia, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana and Utah, “Druid Peak” stars Spencer Treat Clark (“Mystic River,” “Gladiator”), Andrew Wilson (“Rushmore,” “The Royal Tenenbaums”), Rachel Korine (“Spring Breakers,” “Septien”) and the wolves of Wasatch Rocky Mountain Wildlife (“White Fang,” “Into the Wild”).