You can’t get much more fringe, than the subject of this droll little documentary.
It’ll be adored by folks who build their schedules around Will Shortz’s challenges as puzzle master on NPR’s Weekend Edition; and by folks who enjoy crossword puzzles; and by folks who get a kick out of anagrams, spoonerisms, Tom Swifties and other forms of word play.
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| Orchestral bassoonist Lori Wike poses with one of her favorite palindromes. |
In short, director Vince Clemente’s new film will go over big with word nerds. And if you do belong to that rather idiosyncratic group, then you’ve no doubt endured plenty of glazed looks and rolled eyes while trying to explain this passion to normal people.
Children generally encounter palindromes at some point during their grade-school years, likely shared by a math or English teacher looking to lighten the mood. Palindromes are easy to define: They’re words or phrases that read identically, forward and backwards. Basic single word examples include TOT, PIP and DAD; common names include BOB, ELLE and HANNAH.
It gets more interesting when multiple words are employed to make a palindromic phrase; classics include MADAM, I’M ADAM (supposedly the first sentence uttered in the Garden of Eden); STEP ON NO PETS; WAS IT A CAR OR A CAT I SAW; and my all-time favorite, A MAN, A PLAN, A CANAL … PANAMA!
The latter points to a key element of the best palindromes: They should be elegant, and make some sort of sense. Raising a smile is even better. Random assortments of words, no matter how impressively long and perfectly palindromic, are frowned upon.
Most people abandon such nonsense upon achieving adulthood, but Clemente’s film isn’t interested in most people. Having previously helmed one of the best documentaries to cover video games — 2011’s Ecstasy of Order: The Tetris Masters — I can well imagine his wheels spinning anew, after hearing about the First Annual World Palindrome Championship, which took place March 16, 2012, in Brooklyn, New York.
(As it happened, the event was misnamed; although it was indeed the first, subsequent contests have been quinquennial … which is to say, every five years.)
Clemente decided to profile the contestants who would vie for the second bout, scheduled to take place March 24-25, 2017, in Stanford, Connecticut. In a gesture of solidarity, host Will Shortz — you just knew he’d be involved, right? — booked this event alongside the less eclectic 40th American Crossword Puzzle Tournament; this way, the palindromists were guaranteed a full-house audience.
The resulting film was literally years in the making, in part because it was crowd-funded via Kickstarter; and in part because it took Clemente awhile to interview everybody ahead of time, and then again during the two-day event; and in part because then he needed supplementary crowd-funding via Indiegogo, in order to complete post-production.
The result is impressively entertaining — for word nerds, anyway — despite such humble origins.
Half a dozen contestants are given a fair amount of screen time:
• Mark Saltveit, a stand-up comic based in Portland, Oregon, unofficially recognized as the “Palindrome Ambassador,” thanks to having brought like-minded individuals together with the help of his infrequently published fanzine, The Palindromist;
• Jon Agee, the successful author and illustrator of numerous children’s books and wordplay books, including SO MANY DYNAMOS! And Other Palindromes, SIT ON A POTATO PAN, OTIS! More Palindromes, and OTTO: A Palindrama;
• Martin Clear, a cherubic computer programmer based in Sydney, Australia, who eagerly crossed the globe in order to meet more of his ilk;
• Mike Maguire, a photographer, poet and chess tutor who lives in Washington, D.C., and writes complex palindromic poetry;
• Douglas Fink, a tech content writer and crossword puzzle creator who lives in Monroe, Connecticut; and
• Lori Wike, the lone woman in the group, who plays lead bassoon in the Utah State Orchestra.
Their segments are interspersed with some fascinating bits of palindromic history, such as the fact that during World War II, Bletchley Park’s head mathematician, John Henry Whitehead, assigned his code-breakers — as a means of stimulating their creativity — the challenge of creating some fresh palindrome phrases.
These and other brief detours are animated in a simple but quite cute style.
There’s even some good-natured squabbling over whether the word should be pronounced PA-lin-DRO-mist (American style) or Pa-LIN-dro-mist (British style).
Former child actress (The Wonder Years)-turned-inspirational math textbook author Danica McKellar posts riddle-like clues that yield palindromic answers every Thursday on her Twitter feed. She shares her 2014 visit to The Tonight Show, when she stumped Jimmy Fallon with one of them.
Weird Al Yankovic discusses the creation of his palindromic song, “Bob” — a simultaneous tribute to Dylan — which is cleverly assembled much the way Tom Lehrer performed “The Elements,” including essential rhymes.
Once assembled in Stamford, the group is augmented by two more challengers: poet and publisher Anthony Etherin, and retired math teacher Win Emmons.
And that’s it … just eight folks.
To prevent contestants from arriving with stupendous palindromes at the ready, they’re required to construct fresh ones according to their choice of rules established by Shortz. Examples from the first challenge: The palindrome “must start or end with a French or Spanish word,” or “must contain the names of two or more magazines.”
They then have one hour — 60 short minutes — to create something inspired.
The results are read aloud, and judged the audience members, who react in the moment with placards that read WOW! or HUH?
The second, much more ambitious challenge allows for greater creativity. After hearing another series of Shortz’s rules — the palindrome “must be in the form of a haiku,” or “must summarize the plot of a famous movie,” and three other options — the contestants are given a full day to do their best, with the results read to the same crowd the following evening.
And — believe me — some of the results are freakin’ awesome.
One minor quibble: Although Clements cleverly (and helpfully) uses on-screen typography to illustrate every palindrome presented, he doesn’t hold sufficiently on the longer and more ambitious entries; you’ll likely be hitting the “pause” button rather frequently.
That aside, word nerds will get an intense kick out of this marvelous little film.
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