Join or Die

*MICHIGAN PREMIERE // DIRECTORS IN ATTENDANCE*

Join or Die

*DIRECTOR IN ATTENDANCE*
Join or Die is a film about why you should join a club — and why the fate of America may depend on it. In this feature documentary, follow the half-century story of America’s civic unraveling through the journey of legendary social scientist Robert Putnam, whose groundbreaking “Bowling Alone” research into America’s decades-long decline in community connections could hold the answers to our democracy’s present crisis. Flanked by influential fans and scholars — from Hillary Clinton, Pete Buttigieg, and Surgeon General Vivek Murthy to Eddie Glaude Jr., Raj Chetty, and Priya Parker — as well as inspiring groups building community in neighborhoods across the country, join Bob as he explores three urgent civic questions: What makes democracy work? Why is American democracy in crisis? And, most importantly: What can we do about it?

*DIRECTOR IN ATTENDANCE*
Like the landscape in much of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, the Ewen-Trout Creek school district is a quintessential rural setting, dotted with the weathered structures of once-bustling family farms. One of these buildings is anything but typical; it’s where a decades-long dynasty of championship-caliber high school basketball teams began. This multi-part docu-series explores how this western U.P. high school with fewer than two dozen students per grade has built a basketball tradition that has captured the eyes of sportswriters and the dreams of young ballplayers for generations — and it all began in a unique gymnasium known as “The Barn.”