Tonight I caught the last showing of the documentary American Teen, which won the Best Director Award for Nanette Burstein at Sundance. I went in a bit wary, because some people criticized Burstein for sensationalism and staging of the story. She defends herself. Now that I've seen the movie, I can highly recommend it. There's no doubt that having a camera in your face distorts authenticity somewhat. But I didn't find any unique distortion in this documentary compared to any other.
The movie captures senior year for high school students in Warsaw, Indiana (during the 2005-2006 school year). Warsaw reminded me somewhat of my hometown of Grove City, Ohio. But the story could be told in many places in America: senior prom jitters; college acceptance letters; mean pranks; etc. Burstein forcuses on five teenagers in particular.
Hannah Bailey is my favorite teen. She's a rebel with style, and never does anything to hurt anyone. Hannah really wants to get out of Warsaw and become a film-maker, but her parents prefer that she stay close to home for college. Hannah doesn't listen to them, and at the end of the year she packs up a UHaul and drives across the country to San Francisco. She plans to live in California for a year, become a resident, and then study film at San Francisco State.
I was cheering for Hannah the whole time (quietly), and thought it was great to see her standing with the Golden Gate Bridge behind her. I wasn't so independent at eighteen years old. Even so, as she packs the UHaul and her Mom says, "If it doesn't work out...Come home!...no questions asked," it was very touching.
The postscript of the movie gives an update on the teens since the end of filming. Hannah's update made me like her even more. She found San Francisco to be "way expensive," and left after 8 months because she discovered she was "more of an east coast girl."
So where is she now? In New York City, studying film! And how is New York anyway? "It's awesome!" Hannah, I agree.
I'm glad you got to see this, Marcus. It just opened here in New Orleans, and I'm hoping to see it, though my trips to the movie theater these days are rare--only 3-4 times a year usually!
Mostly I'm interested in it because of Brustein's inclusion of an Indiana town (and a prosperous one to boot), but her willingness to embrace rather than subvert "Breakfast Club" stereotypes is provocative and, I think, astutely reasoned. Her rationalization for choosing a small-ish city (if Warsaw can be called that) in the Midwest was also interesting.
One concern about staginess that seems impossible to reconcile, however, is the fact that one of the kids is seen using a video gaming system that was not yet available at the time (2005-06) that this documentary was ostensibly filmed. I'm sure countless other documentaries, though, contain such chronological gaffes and are an inevitable part of creating a narrative out of hundred of hours of disparate reels of footage (along with the occasional need for a "band-aid" to provide context or cohesion). Any thoughts on this?
Posted by: Eric | August 16, 2008 at 04:47 PM
Hey Eric,
You are following the controversy surrounding "American Teen" better than me; I had no idea about the challenged timeline of that gaming system. Your explanation makes sense to me, unless some sort of "smoking gun" materializes (so to speak).
We all have problems with anachronism. In fourth grade I started to write a story in which Abraham Lincoln addressed the nation on TV. My teacher gently informed me that TV had not been invented in 1863!
You should definitely make a point to see "American Teen". Make it one of those 3-4 times per year! These days I'm at 1 or 2 movies per week, a much higher ratio than when I was an American teen myself.
Posted by: Marcus | August 16, 2008 at 08:22 PM