Nanette Burstein
The 2008 Sundance Film Festival was dominated by one movie and that was Nanette Burstein's documentary American Teen.
The film looks at individuals from different social groups during their final year at high school. I caught up with Nanette to discuss the movie and what lies ahead for the filmmaker.
- Your new movie American Teen is about to be released here on DVD in the UK so can you tell me a little bit about it?
It is a documentary about four different kids from different social groups who are going into their senior year at high school and it's about the trials and tribulations of adolescence.
- Why did you choose Warsaw, Indiana?
Well I looked at a lot of different places in the United States, I wanted it to be in a town where there was only one high school so there was no escape from whatever reality high school brings. I went to hundreds of different high schools in several different states and interviewed all the seniors in these schools and just found the most compelling kids and stories in Warsaw, Indiana.
- How did you decide on which students to follow, was there an audition process or were their set high school stereotypes you were looking for?
I did want kids from different social groups but I didn't want them to be particular stereotypes. I interviewed all the incoming seniors that were interested in being involved and was looking for compelling stories; kids that passionately wanted to accomplish something in high school that year and maybe appeared one way on the surface but were a lot more complicated. That's what I was looked for and felt that I found.
- Can you tell me what the filming process was like because it was shot over ten months?
We would film every day and I kept it a very small crew, a lot of the time it would just be me filming by myself or just me and a camera person, and it would just depend on what was happening each day and what was happening in their lives which would dictate who would be filming and what we would be filming.
- What issues did you face while filming?
It was sometime difficult filming in the school but a lot of the time we didn't film in the school we would film after school at people's houses. But when we did film in the school, which was only about 30% of the time, it was hard it's teenagers they have to complain about something!
The hallways were so congested so to bring a camera through, my camera person would often get knocked, and it was difficult filming in the high school absolutely.
Then the other difficulties were I was filming very intimate moments of these high school kids' lives, and they are already feeling like 'oh my god I'm being criticised and judged by my peers and now I'm in front of a camera how am I going to be seen?'
So there were times that they didn't want me shooting and I had to both respect their privacy but tell enough to get a compelling story of who they were.
- That leads me into my next question how open were they as they talk about very private and family issues at times?
I think that they were very open but there were just certain times when things would get too much for them in their lives and they didn't' want a camera there all of the time.
- How difficult was if for you to stand back and not pass judgement on those kids as you watched them go through their daily lives and the struggles that they faced?
I was always thinking about them an what they were going through so I guess there was a form of attachment there. I would intervene and help whenever I could, they often didn't listen to or they would listen to me in a way that they would listen to a big sister.
At that age they would do or think what they wanted it's hard to imagine, for example with Hannah she was going through that terrible depression and she really was alone, I felt very compelled to help her and got her into counselling.
But I kept telling her 'you can't drop out of school because you have these big dreams and I know that you are going through this depression but you will get beyond it and you are going to look back on this and think it was just a bad period, you don't want your whole life dictated by this.'
But it was hard for her to understand that at that moment when you are in the midst of a depression and you are that young. Of course she went back to school and looked at that period and just thought thank god I didn't drop out and I don't even care about this kid that broke my heart, it sounds so silly but it's hard to know that in that moment.
- And what was your experience of high school?
I had a really tough time at high school, I guess that's why I wanted revisit that period with the film, I changed social groups without, I started out in the more popular group and finally ended up much more like Hannah which was much more of who I really was.
I had a lot of problems with my parents as I was very rebellious and got in lots of trouble so it was a very tough period.
- I really enjoyed the animation elements in the film so why did you decide to include them?
I remember in high school that there was so much in my life that was wishful thinking and fantastical and dreaming about having a different life than the one I did, I suspected that was the same for many high school kids.
Before I shot the film I had this idea and it's fantastical and larger than life why not try animating it? Someone talking about it on camera isn't going to convey the same thing so throughout the year I interviewed them about their fantasy lives and chose the most compelling.
- With ten months of footage how difficult was the editing process?
I really enjoy the editing process a lot, I actually started as an editor, and at that point you know that you have filmed everything so there's no anxiety of 'oh my god what if I'm going to miss all the important moments'.
It's just time consuming and very much like a puzzle, and I have always enjoyed puzzles, and it's all about balance, obviously you have to cut someone's life down enormously to their essence whilst trying to be fair to who they are and really just capture who they are in this very short time span, I really enjoy it.
- Did you have to cut anything out that you wish you could have completed or anything that focused on one particular student that there just wasn't time to include?
No but I wish I had made it a little bit looser, it's very tightly edited and it's non-stop entertainment, it probably could have been a little bit longer. But no I don't regret any moments or sub-plots that I took out it probably just didn't need to be quite as tight.
- Have you followed any of the student, Hannah wanted to be a director so have you helped her in any way?
Well the film coming out gave her so much exposure and all these people in the movie industry saw it and fell in love with her. Last summer she had an internship with an advertising company and then she has been doing well in film school and is really enjoying it.
- Finally what's next for you?
I'm actually making a romantic comedy, which is very different from a documentary, but I'm having a lot of fun with it.
American Teen is out on DVD 29th June
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
The 2008 Sundance Film Festival was dominated by one movie and that was Nanette Burstein's documentary American Teen.
The film looks at individuals from different social groups during their final year at high school. I caught up with Nanette to discuss the movie and what lies ahead for the filmmaker.
- Your new movie American Teen is about to be released here on DVD in the UK so can you tell me a little bit about it?
It is a documentary about four different kids from different social groups who are going into their senior year at high school and it's about the trials and tribulations of adolescence.
- Why did you choose Warsaw, Indiana?
Well I looked at a lot of different places in the United States, I wanted it to be in a town where there was only one high school so there was no escape from whatever reality high school brings. I went to hundreds of different high schools in several different states and interviewed all the seniors in these schools and just found the most compelling kids and stories in Warsaw, Indiana.
- How did you decide on which students to follow, was there an audition process or were their set high school stereotypes you were looking for?
I did want kids from different social groups but I didn't want them to be particular stereotypes. I interviewed all the incoming seniors that were interested in being involved and was looking for compelling stories; kids that passionately wanted to accomplish something in high school that year and maybe appeared one way on the surface but were a lot more complicated. That's what I was looked for and felt that I found.
- Can you tell me what the filming process was like because it was shot over ten months?
We would film every day and I kept it a very small crew, a lot of the time it would just be me filming by myself or just me and a camera person, and it would just depend on what was happening each day and what was happening in their lives which would dictate who would be filming and what we would be filming.
- What issues did you face while filming?
It was sometime difficult filming in the school but a lot of the time we didn't film in the school we would film after school at people's houses. But when we did film in the school, which was only about 30% of the time, it was hard it's teenagers they have to complain about something!
The hallways were so congested so to bring a camera through, my camera person would often get knocked, and it was difficult filming in the high school absolutely.
Then the other difficulties were I was filming very intimate moments of these high school kids' lives, and they are already feeling like 'oh my god I'm being criticised and judged by my peers and now I'm in front of a camera how am I going to be seen?'
So there were times that they didn't want me shooting and I had to both respect their privacy but tell enough to get a compelling story of who they were.
- That leads me into my next question how open were they as they talk about very private and family issues at times?
I think that they were very open but there were just certain times when things would get too much for them in their lives and they didn't' want a camera there all of the time.
- How difficult was if for you to stand back and not pass judgement on those kids as you watched them go through their daily lives and the struggles that they faced?
I was always thinking about them an what they were going through so I guess there was a form of attachment there. I would intervene and help whenever I could, they often didn't listen to or they would listen to me in a way that they would listen to a big sister.
At that age they would do or think what they wanted it's hard to imagine, for example with Hannah she was going through that terrible depression and she really was alone, I felt very compelled to help her and got her into counselling.
But I kept telling her 'you can't drop out of school because you have these big dreams and I know that you are going through this depression but you will get beyond it and you are going to look back on this and think it was just a bad period, you don't want your whole life dictated by this.'
But it was hard for her to understand that at that moment when you are in the midst of a depression and you are that young. Of course she went back to school and looked at that period and just thought thank god I didn't drop out and I don't even care about this kid that broke my heart, it sounds so silly but it's hard to know that in that moment.