36. American Teen (Feature Film)

American Teen (Feature Film)

2008

Directed by Nanette Burstein

Paramount Vintage/A&E IndieFilms

Total running time: 95 minutes

Plot Summary

American Teen is a documentary focused on Warsaw Community High School in Warsaw, Indiana.  While there are numerous teens featured, the film follows five main students in both their school and personal lives, depicting the stressors that they feel in both atmospheres.  Because the teens are all high school seniors, the college application and selection process is also included, adding to the stress of the year.   Highlighting the presence of cliques at the school, American Teen includes teens that each fit a certain stereotype: Hannah (rebel), Colin (jock), Megan (“queen bee”), Mitch (heartthrob), and Jake (geek/gamer).  Beginning on the first day of the school year and continuing through to graduation, the documentary chronicles the drama that is present in the everyday lives of the teens as they try to balance the demands of school with their friendships and relationships.  Also, the one-on-one interviews with the director give insight into the innermost thoughts and fears of teens everywhere.

Critical Evaluation

With the increasing presence of reality shows, it has become public knowledge that many of the events, especially the most dramatic, are staged or scripted.  However, with documentaries, such as American Teen, it is believed that the events are real and that the director is merely capturing what she sees developing, but the viewer can never be completely sure.  Nevertheless, assuming that the events that happen in American Teen, such as the topless picture that one girl sends to a friend of Megan and the relationship between Hannah and Mitch, are all unscripted and true, the very presence of the director and cameras has an effect on the subjects of the documentary and the teens may be acting up in front of the cameras, even subconsciously.  Given all of this speculation, the film is still an intriguing portrait of the lives of high school students.  Although Warsaw is a small town, the high school could be any high school in America, with teens of all personalities.  While the town is mostly white and conservative, this is something that adds to Hannah’s reasons for wanting to move to California—a place she considers much more free-thinking and fitting to her personality.  In addition to showing Hannah’s first love and first heartbreak, the film demonstrates just how nasty and alienating bullying can be through Megan’s joy at emailing everyone she knows the topless picture of her guy friend’s date and Jake’s feeling that everyone either makes fun of him or doesn’t notice him at all.  Also, the stress of getting into college resonates with Colin and Megan in particular.  As the star athlete, Colin knows that his only chance of going to college is by getting a basketball scholarship and the pressure seems too much for him.  While Megan is financially able to get into any college, her family’s history of going to Notre Dame leads to her stressing out about getting into Notre Dame, as well.  I found it particularly interesting when her father talks to her about whether she is stressing out about the acceptance letter for herself or for him.  Although she says that she is stressed out for herself, her confessions to the camera about the importance of going to Notre Dame because of her family reveals that her father plays a bigger role than she will admit, at least to his face.  All in all, the documentary is a moving look into the struggles that all teens go through during what many of us were told would be the best years of our lives.

Reader's Annotation

Five high school seniors in Warsaw, Indiana, deal with the pressures of life inside and outside of school.

Information About the Director

Nanette Burstein studied film at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts.  In 1997 she collaborated on her first film with Brett Morgen, producing and directing On the Ropes, a low-budget documentary that follows the fates of three young boxers and their trainer. The film, shot mainly on BetaSP, was nominated for an Oscar for Best Documentary (feature length), won Special Jury Prize for Documentary at Sundance, won the Directors Guild of America’s award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary. The film also won the International Documentary Association’s Feature Documentary award, a Silver Spire at the San Francisco International Film Festival, the Urbanworld Film Festival Best Documentary, and the Land Grant Award at the Taos Talking Picture Festival. The film was also nominated for an Independent Spirit Award (“Truer than Fiction” award).

In 2004, she produced a documentary television show Film School for IFC with Jordan Roberts, following four film students at their alma mater, Tisch. In 2007 Burstein was executive producer and writer on the VH1 Rock Doc NY77: The Coolest Year In Hell which showcases the rise of hip hop, punk, disco, and graffiti in New York City in 1977. She also executive produced the doc American Shopper.  Her latest documentary American Teen was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize for Documentary at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. For the project, she lived in the small town of Warsaw, Indiana for 10 months, filming daily. She ended up with 1000 hours of footage, which took a year to edit. (information from director’s Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanette_Burstein)

Genre

Teen Documentary

Curriculum Ties

This film could be shown in a life skills class in order to let teens know that others are going through similar problems.

Booktalking Ideas

1. Discuss the struggles that teens face to balance their school and personal lives.

2. Focus on the stereotypes depicted in the film.

3. Address the instances of bullying in the documentary.

4. Identify the different types of stress the teens put on themselves and feel from others.

Reading Level/Interest Age

13+

Challenge Issues

The film includes profanity, sexual situations, and teen drinking and smoking.

When confronted with complaints about this film, librarians should become familiar with the material and its content.  Turn to reviews listed on Amazon.com, as well as reviews from teens that have seen the film.  Also, it is beneficial for librarians to present reasons backed by the ALA in support of intellectual freedom.  As stated in the Library Bill of Rights:

I. Books and other library resources should be provided for the interest, information, and enlightenment of all people of the community the library serves. Materials should not be excluded because of the origin, background, or views of those contributing to their creation.

II. Libraries should provide materials and information presenting all points of view on current and historical issues. Materials should not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval.

III. Libraries should challenge censorship in the fulfillment of their responsibility to provide information and enlightenment.

Why Include Film in Selection? 

I saw this documentary when it came out a couple of years ago and I wanted to watch it again as part of this project to look more closely at the teen issues.