American Teen’
By JOE SCOTT
A high school senior from Warsaw, Ind., uses her camera phone to snap a topless photo of herself and send it to her quasi-boyfriend.
The boyfriend responds by forwarding the photo to one of his buddies.
By the end of the week, the senior’s entire school has seen her photo, her friends won’t speak to her, and she gets harassing cell- phone calls from complete strangers during the middle of the night.
This act of cyber-bullying, which would have been technologically impossible even 10 years ago, is but one of the minor stories in “American Teen,” the newest documentary from director Nanette Burstein .
The movie had its N.C. debut in April at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in Durham, and Burstein was on hand to speak with festival attendees and the local press.
“It’s not uncommon, and I think it’s because of that age, you’re not thinking about their futures and the consequences of their actions,” Burstein says of the camera-phone incident. “They don’t think about the future.
“I think in five or 10 years from now that might be different, but the Internet hasn’t been around that long, especially with the speed that it’s at with the texting and being able to send jpegs and videos.”
Burstein’s film demonstrates how technology has mutated the landscape of contemporary adolescence. Uber-geek Jake Tusing is a bit of a video-game addict, who uses Nintendo’s “The Legend of Zelda” to conjure up a fantasy wherein he takes back his ex- girlfriend from the fellow high school band member who stole her away. When school heartthrob Mitch Reinholt decides to break up with his current sweetheart, he does so via text-messaging (an act he later concedes was a bit tactless).
On the other hand, what makes “American Teen” so compelling is that despite the challenges young adults face on a regular basis, the most important struggles are timeless.
Colin Clemens , Warsaw High School’s star basketball player, has two choices: win a college scholarship or enlist in the armed services.
And rock ‘n’ roll rebel Hannah Bailey has one dream and one dream only: to escape the socially confining borders of her small, Midwestern hometown.
After “Juno” hit theaters last winter, some critics complained that the young female protagonist’s dialogue was too hip and intelligent for her age. However, in “American Teen,” we see Bailey being no less cool or introspective, albeit without a soundtrack by Kimya Dawson.
“When she first showed up in Warsaw when we were doing these casting interviews, I thought, OK, this is the coolest girl in the school, but nobody knows it,’ ” Burstein says.
Bailey would ultimately steal the show in Burstein’s film, becoming the closest thing the movie has to a main character.
According to Burstein, she had no idea Bailey would play such a pivotal role in “American Teen” until the night she captured the scene in which Bailey gets dumped by her boyfriend.
“I went with a small camera by myself with (Bailey’s friend) Clark, and she was sitting outside crying,” Burstein says. “There was no light, so I just put on my car headlight. It felt a little weird filming this, and I was like, I don’t know how she’s feeling about it, but I’ll just shoot it, and if she’s upset, she’ll say something about it.’
“But she didn’t.”
Burstein believes Bailey’s willingness to open up on camera came from her own desire to be a filmmaker.
“She thought, OK, if I’m going to do this, I’m going to do it,’” Burstein says. “I want to be a filmmaker, and I understand that you need these intimate moments.’”
As for the senior who became the victim of the cyber-bullying incident, one of Burstein’s greatest moments in the film is when the girl starts to cry, realizing that all the friends she once believed in are gone forever.
“She basically tried to stay somewhat anonymous and under the radar for the remainder of the year,” Burstein says. “She ended up coming to a big university so that she could just blend in and forget about the past.”
Contact Joe Scott at movieshowjoe@gmail.com
(c) 2008 Greensboro News Record. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.