Up for Debate: Team Qatar

Originally broadcast on the BBC, Liz Mermin's documentary follows the five-member debate team from Qatar as it makes its first-ever appearance at the World School Debating Championships. New to the concept of British parliamentary debate, Qatar imports its coach from the U.K.—22-year-old Alex Just, a former president of the Oxford Union. But the squad itself reflects the peculiar demographics of a country where 80 percent of the residents are foreign born; one young man who is half Qatari and half Lebanese is the only native participant. Mermin follows the teenage debaters—three girls and two boys—as they undergo rigorous training in London and Doha before embarking to Washington for the international contest. While the idea of the two genders collaborating as equals on a major project is clearly progressive for the Arab world, Team Qatar still comes across as a clumsy propaganda piece that casually ignores the sad fact that this Persian Gulf emirate has no history of allowing the basic elements that enable debate: freedom of speech, media, and assembly. Not a necessary purchase. Aud: C, P. (P. Hall)