Intrigued by Ellen's remarks concerning American Teen, I decided to see the film the very same day. I had both read and heard quite a bit about the documentary, and was interested to experience the controversy that is the film first hand.
The film basically chronicles the senior year of four Indiana high schoolers, who deal with typical issues of social acceptance and college admissions, amongst others things. I could definitely tell which scenes of the documentary people had issues with, in terms of staging. I had been warned about one scene (or rather, montage) in particular, in which the camera cuts between the four teens lying in their respective beds, staring off into space. This segment seemed like it was taken out of some cheesy teen drama, and it definitely felt forced. Nonetheless, the scenes like these didn't bother me all that much, because the film felt true to its subjects overall (the teens overwhelmingly embraced the film, and toured with the director as she took American Teen on its festival tour).
We have to remember (when we are watching a documentary) that what's on screen is a construction. American Teen was edited in a certain way, in order to evoke certain emotions from the audience. Regardless of editing, the camera's presence in any situation inevitably changes the very situation (an phenomenon known as the observer effect). I argue that people shouldn't get caught up in the "realness" of a documentary, because the form itself alters reality. But I digress.
Overall, while I can see how some people had issues with American Teen, I still found Nanette Burstein's film an engaging piece of work that raises many important questions about documentaries, and the techniques we use to shoot them.
3 comments:
American Teen sucked!
Kidding.
Ok well, seriously, after today's embarrassing discuss of the proper way to comment on the blog (just kidding), I thought I'd leave an appropriate, mature, intelligence response to Jason's review.
I had been excited about seeing American Teen for months before it came out - the trailer made it look amazing. One of my roommates, who also works with me at TSTV, got a chance to see the film early and interview the cast as part of a press tour, and when he told me how much he liked it, I got even more excited.
Buuuuttt....when I finally got to see the film, none of the depth and relatability I expected was there. The characters were flat, stereotypical clichés, and the characters I expected to love were boring and disappointing. However, there was some hidden depth in the "Bitch" character that I didn't expect, which was a nice surprise.
The debate about the "construction" of the film had not really occurred to me until we discussed it in class. There are many scenes that could not have existed with a film crew with only one or two cameras, so either there was plenty of clever editing trickery or some manipulation or "acting." I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing, but because I had already been disappointed by the film thus far, this obvious construction made my disappointment that much worse.
The film does have some saving graces, but they mostly play on the "Hills" or "Laguna Beach" style of documentary, and rather than working as a satire of these forms or a comment on the form with very real characters, the flatness of the main subjects and the unexciting conclusion make American Teen, to me, a much worse film than I expected.
But, that's just one person's opinion - what do you think?
here is what marjorie baumgarten of the Austin Chronicle had to say:
American Teen
Year Released: 2008
Directed By: Nanette Burstein
(PG-13, 95 min.)
In our modern Information Age, it is no longer possible to believe in documentaries as conveyors of unfiltered, unvarnished truths. Everything is transmitted through the eyes of the beholders, from the lens of the filmmaker to the perceptions of the viewers. Burstein’s American Teen, however, causes us to become aware of the power the subjects have to control their ultimate image and message. We used to fret over the extent to which a filmmaker’s presence altered the very nature of that which was under observation. American Teen shows us that we really need to pay more attention to the ways in which the media-savvy of the subjects can shape the outcome of the observation. The teens of Warsaw, Ind., the town in which Burstein’s documentary is set, were born into the era of reality TV, in which a spot on The Real World or American Idol means a ticket to instant celebrity, and the confidences once shared in diaries and incessant phone chatter are now unveiled on Facebook and MySpace for all the world to consume. They may not have known it, but these kids were ready for their shot at fame long before Burstein entered their midst and wired them up with portable microphone packs. What her cameras capture shouldn’t be construed as truth but rather as scenarios that were cast in stone long before she came on the scene. The five high school seniors she chooses as her main subjects could have come straight from Central Casting – or The Breakfast Club: They are the princess, jock, rebel, heartthrob, and geek. It’s senior year, so the film gains some dramatic strength from the kids’ uncertainty about their futures, but apart from that, the film records the usual teenage obsessions with social insecurities, who’s dating whom, and the hierarchies of cool. From the outset, it’s necessary to ask if these students are a truly representative lot or whether they’re stereotypes that fit Burstein’s preconceptions. Burstein’s judgment also becomes an issue, as we watch the occasionally despicable behavior of the teens (as during the plastering of hate graffiti on an opponent’s window or the merciless mocking of a defenseless newcomer whose naked torso has been IM’d throughout the town), while her unyielding camera practically spurs further action with its rapt attention. The artsy rebel Hannah Bailey (who is now studying filmmaking in college) experiences a depression so intense that it precludes her being able to attend school, yet she gladly allows Burstein’s camera into her bedroom and inner thoughts. Burstein (who previously co-directed The Kid Stays in the Picture and On the Ropes) ultimately tells us nothing about senior year in the heartland of America that we didn’t already know. However, the film’s revelations about our media-soaked society are revelatory. At times it’s almost like Lord of the Flies, with the camera serving as the flypaper dipped in the honey of the promised land of celebrity.
Marjorie Baumgarten [2008-08-08]
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