Grammar enthusiasts converge at the Art House for meeting with expert

“Rebel With a Clause” is as much a film about human connection as it is about grammar. 

On Sunday, Sept. 21, more than 60 people gathered at the Art House in Eugene to watch the documentary and meet its subject, Ellen Jovin, a self-described grammarian who travels the country answering grammar questions from strangers. 

Jovin, wearing an “I ❤ grammar” T-shirt, set up her grammar advice pop-up stand in the lobby of the theater ahead of the screening.

Saskia Mills, of Corvallis, said she’d been excited to see the film since she saw a trailer for it in July. She talked with Jovin about the correct way to use the word “resonate.” Ann Flaharty, of Eugene, asked Jovin about semicolons.

Brandt Johnson, 59, Jovin’s husband and the director of the documentary, handed out “nonmandatory” grammar quizzes to everyone in the lobby. One of the five questions: What is the square root of the number of letters in the part of speech that “punctiliousness” is? (Answer: Punctiliousness is a noun and the square root of four is two.)

Jovin, 59, set up her first grammar table in 2018 on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The grammar expert has studied more than 25 languages and teaches grammar and writing to adults through a consulting firm she founded with her husband called Syntaxis.

“I thought it would be fun to answer the grammar questions of total strangers,” Jovin told Lookout Eugene-Springfield. “Even though grammar has a bad reputation, people are often really curious about it. I think they’re in denial about their grammar nerdery, and they often really do want to talk about this stuff. But in a way that doesn’t make them feel bad or deficient.” 

Johnson said it quickly became apparent that he needed to film the interactions and share them. 

“What was happening there was so hilarious and so heartwarming that it was just really compelling,” Johnson said. “We are in a divided time in a lot of ways right now, and what was happening at the grammar table, it was a place of joy and human connection and fun that was just really inspiring.”

The two set out on a road trip to take Jovin’s pop-up grammar advice stand (a portable table and homemade blue “GRAMMAR TABLE” sign) to every state in the country. They set up on city streets and in parks throughout America, with Jovin asking, “Do you have a grammar question?” everywhere they went. 

The questions ranged from where to put the apostrophe in “y’all” to when to use who and whom. 

Johnson started filming in December 2018 and continued until January of 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic caused them to put their travels on hold. They had visited 47 states. 

During that time, Jovin wrote a book about her experiences called “Rebel With a Clause: Tales and Tips From a Roving Grammarian,” which HarperCollins published in 2022. Soon they were able to visit their three remaining states and Johnson went to work editing the 400 hours of footage into an 86-minute documentary.

“People from every imaginable walk of life or relationship to language or background or experience would come up to the table, and it was often surprising what the interactions would be and just fun and entertaining,” Johnson said. 

What unified the whole experience, he said, was people’s interest in connecting. 

“You have this public discussion where people are nice to each other, but maybe teasing, you know, there’s a lot of joking around about this,” Jovin said. “Like, ‘You don’t use the Oxford comma. That’s it. I’m leaving.’ People can make jokes about it, and that’s bonding. Humor is bonding.”

The film is currently showing in select theaters around the United States, with Jovin and Johnson present at most screenings with the grammar table and a post-film question-and-answer session. They’re planning for a PBS broadcast in the future.