The Lake County Film Festival returns for its milestone 15th edition, bringing an exciting and diverse slate of films to local audiences from September 4–7 and September 12–15, 2025. The festival will screen more than 134 films, including 17 feature-length films and over 120 short films from around the world.

Gorton Center is proud to be hosting the closing night feature film, “Speak.”!

ABOUT THE FILM

LOGLINE

Five top-ranked high school oratory students spend a year crafting spellbinding spoken word performances with the dream of winning one of the world’s largest and most intense public speaking competitions.

LONG SYNOPSIS

SPEAK follows five of the nation’s top teenage speech competitors, capturing the euphoria of victory and the devastation of defeat as they craft and perform original oratories over the course of a 9-month season. Their dream is simple: To win the Super Bowl of public speaking, the NSDA Nationals.

We witness them, their coaches and their parents as they fight to keep school speech programs alive amid budget cuts, book bans and censorship efforts that reach a fevered pitch during the 2024 election year.

The film begins at the 2023 National Speech and Debate Association (NSDA) Championships, introducing our eclectic orators: Noor, Noah, Sam, Mfaz and Esther, the two-time reigning national champion in Oratory. We follow them to the 2024 Nationals, where Esther hopes to beat the record set by SPEAK’s Executive Producer, Josh Gad, in 1999.

SPEAK captures the passion, joy—and courage—of unforgettable teens using their voices to change hearts and minds. This film is the perfect antidote for these fraught times—intense, funny, and most of all, hopeful.

DirectorsJennifer Tiexiera, Guy Mossman
Stars: Esther, Mfaz, Noah