Many many moons ago, the BBC documented the lives of several British youths (all age 7). The idea was to revisit them seven years later and see how each person's life turned out. The original documentary was called 7-Up. Seven years later, they released 14-Up, then 21-Up, then 28-Up, etc. The most recent installment is 48-Up and, from what I've heard, the next one, 56-Up is slated for release in 2011.
Each installment in and of itself is marginally interesting but what makes the series so fascinating, and worth watching as an entire series, is seeing the development of each person, seeing how much some individuals changed and others remained the same.
Nanette Burstein's documentary, American Teen, is not nearly as ambitious. Burstein simply wants to provide that "slice of life" picture of what the "typical" American teen experiences and while there are certainly some interesting moments in the documentary, there's hardly anything new or revelatory. High school is a caste system, people get punished for crossing lilnes, even the popular girls have problems, blah blah blah. Really, the only thing in this film that didn't come out of a 1908s John Hughes film was the realization that sometimes (just sometimes) the nerdy kick who gets picked on really desrves to get picked on.
Perhaps ten years from now, when they release special edition version of this film with follow-up interviews, American Teen might be of some interest. Where do these people go with their lives? As parents themselves, will they simply reinforce the very same caste system of which they were a part? Seeing this film made me think a lot of many of the student papers I receive: interesting at times, boring at times, but ultimately, while full of potential, not yet developed.
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