English teachers, rule-abiders, grammar nerds and, well, anyone who has ever tried to wrest control of an unwieldy sentence, rejoice: A special screening of the documentary film “Rebel With a Clause” will take place at 6 p.m. Monday, Sept. 15, at Vashon Theatre.

The screening, presented by the Vashon Theatre Foundation, will boast a Q&A with filmmakers Ellen Jovin and Brandt Johnson, who are a married couple.

The documentary has garnered major prizes on the film festival circuit, rave reviews and widespread media coverage, including a New York Times feature story about its New York debut, high-handedly headlined “Grammar Fans Flock to a Film About Participles and Gerunds.”

The heartwarming and often hilarious film follows Jovin — an author, consultant, grammar guru and student of 25 languages who exemplifies the word “linguaphile” — as she engages in playful yet productive conversations about proper punctuation and parts of speech with thousands of ordinary Americans.

It all began in 2018, when Jovin, who lives in New York City, began schlepping a folding table, chair, dictionaries and assorted other heavy books about grammar around her hometown. With a homemade sign that read “Grammar Table,” she set up shop on street corners, in train stations and at other public places.

Her homespun table was an instant success, drawing people of all ages and walks of life to banter about such grammar insecurities as the use of “who” versus “whom,” where to put the apostrophe in the word “y’all” (note: the example you see here is correct) and whether to place commas and periods inside or outside of quotation marks.

In these conversations, Jovin quickly noticed the fact that even strong disagreements between strangers about hot-button grammatical issues almost never ended in acrimony. Rather, she said, exchanges at the Grammar Table were marked by civility, laughter and the sharing of deeply personal stories that served to connect people of diverse backgrounds and political persuasions.

“Having a healthy public debate without serious conflict is an inherently bonding experience — even if you totally disagree about whether you should use an Oxford comma,” Jovin said in an interview last week.

Johnson, accompanying Jovin as she dispensed advice in New York, soon began videotaping his wife’s encounters, and the seeds of an idea germinated: The couple would travel to all 50 states with their table and homemade sign to find out what Americans had in common. They would make a film that showed the breadth and beauty of the entire country and celebrated all the quirks and controversies found in the common language spoken by its citizens.

“There are no flyover states,” Jovin said.

Jovin and Johnson made it to 47 states before the COVID pandemic struck in 2020, at which time they, along with the rest of the world, retreated into isolation. But the theme of their work persisted.

Jovin wrote what would become a bestselling book, “Rebel with a Clause: Tales and Tips from a Roving Grammarian,” published in 2022 by HarperCollins, and Johnson set to work on editing almost 400 hours of footage of the couple’s far-flung adventures on the road.

When the world opened up again, they hit their final three destinations — Alaska, Hawaii and Connecticut — to complete their 50-state mission.

Now, the release of “Rebel With a Clause” has prompted more cross-country travel for the pair. The film has struck a chord with people, Jovin said, which has kept what she calls her “grammar party” going.

Johnson called the film “a respite from the not-so-joyous, not-so-heartwarming and not-so-cheerful times we are now living in.”

“This is a comedy that is fun and cheerful, and people laugh out loud throughout it,” he said, adding that the film is so funny, in fact, that after the first few screenings, he re-tweaked some of his edits because audiences were laughing over subsequent comical dialogue in the movie.

“Our audiences are effusive; they come out saying it was a joyful experience,” Jovin said, describing how groups of friends have donned coordinated, grammar-themed T-shirts before stepping out to see the film. Most movie-goers also excitedly agree to take a non-mandatory grammar test that is passed out at screenings, she said with a laugh.

According to Jovin, the film has a wide demographic appeal — engaging everyone from nonagenarians to elementary-aged children.

“Kids who are really into language get especially excited to ask me questions,” she said. “They sit in the front row.”

Both Jovin and Johnson said they were excited to visit Vashon on a tour leg that also stops in Bozeman, Montana; Salem and Eugene, Oregon, and independent cinemas in Spokane, Tacoma and Bellingham.

This writer will be in attendance at Vashon Theatre on Sept. 15 with a few burning questions for the filmmakers, mostly concerning our local lexicon.

Is it alright that Vashon’s residents have all collectively dropped the article “the” and even sometimes the word “strawberry” in references to our beloved Strawberry Festival? Do people in other island communities use the phrase “over town” to describe where they are going whenever they have to run errands involving a ferry ride, or is it just us, and should we stop doing that?

And finally, did this writer goof up on her grammar anywhere in this article? She was a bit anxious while writing it.

See the film’s trailer and purchase tickets at vashontheatre.com.