People act differently when there is a camera filming them, they just do. It is unavoidable that Nanette Burstein's documentary, American Teen, is no an entirely accurate recreation of reality. People can get used to being in front a video camera however. They may never truly act themselves, but they do get used to being in front of the camera.
Nanette Burstein maintains that she filmed over a 1,000 hours of footage over the year she spent at Warsaw Community High School. It is reasonable to believe that during that time the students got so used to being filmed that they did not alter their actions to too great of an extent as a result. Another reason to believe that the documentary is a good representation of reality is that the students chose to be in it. Allow me to clarify. The type of individual who willingly signs up to be in a documentary that will follow them around for a year, is also the type of individual who is far more willing to share intimate information than your average joe.
What I'm getting at is that I consider the actions that occurred on film believable. I concede that it is a very real possibility that Burstein has glossed over and manipulated a fair number of aspects. Especially Megan vandalizing the house by writing "fag" on it. But I still believe it to be very possible for that to be what happened.
I wouldn't have done the documentary the same as Burstein though. She made the documentary far too formulaic. It is hard to fully describe, but I suppose the best way of putting it is that it felt as though she had decided what would happen during the course of the documentary before she filmed the documentary. Not that she neccessarily staged individual scenes, but rather she had a pretty firm idea in mind of the general narrative.
One thing that I liked was her subject matter. Not many content creators chose topics so every day to focus on, and I appreciated the change. All in all, an enjoyable documentary that quite frankly shouldn't be taken too seriously. Watch it for fun, rather than an indepth insight into American youth.
Yes. I agree that people are more willing to divulge information if they willingly sign up but there is also the fact that people might want their lives to look more interesting. They might do something they wouldnt do normally or maybe try and make themselves look better for the camera.
ReplyDeleteI think I agree most with your final comment. The film should not be taken too seriously. Trying to capture the emotions of the "American Teen" will not be successful through the use of a documentary crew comprised of people who are no longer teens themselves. A more indepth insight into American youth would need to come straight from the source. The fact of the matter is, nobody quite undestands teenagers like actual teenagers. Watching this film, I couldn't help but be a little embarassed of being a teenager because of the way the subjects were represented. A good documentary about being a teen would actually induce some sort of connection within it's audience of teens. Maybe this film was made more fore adults who want to remember what they think being a teenager was like?
ReplyDeleteSo the documentary offers no insight? You say the subjects weren't acting out for the camera, so why aren't you open to people taking ideas and thoughts about teens from watching it? Seems like a contradiction.
ReplyDeleteI really like your point that people act differently in front of a camera. That's not something I had thought of while watching the film. I wonder how different the film would have been had they tried to get candid footage of the subjects...
ReplyDeleteHowever, one could argue that even the subjects' altered self-portrayals still have value since we can then see how they wish they could be seen by others, which is an important facet of the teen experience conveyed by Burnstein.