American Teen

What does it mean to be a teenager in contemporary America? To answer the question, Nanette Burstein (The Kid Stays in the Picture) picked up her camera and followed four senior students at an Indiana high school for ten months, faithfully recording their daily lives, love affairs, experimentation with sex and alcohol, as well as all those seemingly trivial issues that seem to send contemporary teenagers into hysterical fits. Burstein’s protagonists might exude cool, but underneath that glossy surface, one discerns something of the universal adolescence experience, the need to fit in and the apprehension for the future. More of a feature film than a documentary, American Teen received the Directing Award at Sundance.

Director - Screenwriter: Nanette Burstein

Cinematography: Laela Kilbourn

Editing: Mary Manhardt