“The Bowl” is a new upbeat documentary by Ethereal Films and lead filmmaker Eli Yetter-Bowman that the Ethics Bowl community will be able to use as a recruitment tool for years to come. It’s already received screening requests from 40+ institutions including Stanford and Harvard. And this wasn’t something thrown together by an outsider—Eli has volunteered as an Ethics Bowl judge for the past decade, fully gets Ethics Bowl’s mission and value, and beautifully conveys its draw in the film. According to the filmmakers’ website, spreading the good news about Ethics Bowl is the whole idea.
“We want to drastically expand awareness and participation of the program to schools across the US. It already exists as an amazing resource to support young people but the program lacks mass communication/representation to attract more schools. Further, we believe this type of program offers value for people of all kinds so a secondary goal is to encourage this type of thinking across society in general.”
While full release will come through PBS sometime in 2026, I was granted an advance viewing opportunity and loved it. The Bowl follows a HSEB team from North Carolina to the National Championships at UNC, inviting viewers to share in their excitement, anxieties, thrills, and disappointments. A talented and thoughtful group of young women, coached by an understanding and understated teacher, the team navigates preparation stress, post-round regrets, and the added weirdness of being filmed.
I interviewed Yetter-Bowman and will share our exchange in an upcoming post. But for now, check out the trailer and consider helping spread the word with your coaches, judges, moderators, teams, friends, colleagues, and network. And if your school, nonprofit or business might be interested in an institutional license, simply fill out the form on the film’s project page. School libraries often have budgets for this sort of thing and may take care of the rest if you ask yours nicely.