Paul Fischer
“American Teen” is the heartbreaking and hilarious Sundance hit that follows the lives of four teenagers – a jock, the popular girl, the artsy girl and the geek – in one small town in Indiana through their senior year of high school.Davin Sgargetta caught up with the film’s director, Nanette Burstein to talk about the amazing film.
First of all congratulations on the film and the success thus far.
Thank you.
How much planning was involved?
I had to start with the right kids and the right storylines, so I started with a map of the United States and there are so many places and so many kids. So I narrowed it down to the Midwest, because I wanted it set in the country, and I wanted to find a town that only had one high school, because I thought that there would be more social pressure. You know, it’s more of a pressure cooker, fishbowl situation. I wanted it to be economically rich. I was hoping for racial difference, but we discovered that that was hard to find in that part of the country, if it’s a small town. But we needed a school that would really cooperate, so we contacted hundreds if not thousands schools and we found 10 that had agreed to give me the access that I was looking for and I went to each of them and interviewed all the incoming seniors that were interested. Looking for the best stories and the most interesting kids and we found it in the town of Warsaw.
Were you looking for different kids in different sorts of social groups? What were the specific character traits that you were looking for?
I was looking for different kids in different social groups, but also kids who were trying to achieve something that year: they all had something that they wanted to accomplish that you could see buried in the drama that played out. But I was also looking for kids who could surprise me: you know, that seemed one way on the surface but in fact very different. And you know, the film thematically was about your identity at that age, and how you have your private identity that you are trying to figure out and then you have your public identity which is how your peers see you, and how you are already being judged by them, so you put out a certain persona, and it’s kinda like when you’re with your parents you put out another persona and it’s all very confusing, so it was a matter of choosing kids that I was able to explore that with very well.
High school life in the States has been portrayed a lot in film and on TV in the last few decades. What in particular did you want to draw from this film and what message did you want to get across?
How hard it is at that age to really be yourself and figure out who that is. You’re making such big decisions about your future and you’re so vulnerable: your parents are pressuring you to be one way and your peers are pressuring you to be another way and how important it is and how hard it is to be strong and not succumb to fitting in, to conformity, which is ultimately going to affect your future. Later in life, looking back at that period it constantly emerges; you know, the kind of self that you were at that age can ultimate dictate your life. Maybe you really wanted to do something else with your life but you ended up picking a very different career path – always doing what life around you wants you to do. And that starts at high school, there’s so much pressure at that age to conform. And, you know, Hannah is kind of the hidden hero of the film who stands up to that kind of pressure and conformity and ultimately does what’s in her heart and listens to who she really is.
I understand the filming was over ten months, is that right?
Yes.
I guess for some people that’s not a long time in your life. But for people of that age, that can be a long time and a lot can happen in that type of period. Were you at all worried that things might change that would drastically alter the way your film would need to be put together?
Yeah, that’s always the concern when you’re making this kind of picture because you can’t control life. It’s going to happen ultimately, the way it is. I mean, I picked people that have a central conflict: that they are trying to accomplish something and I guess you don’t know how it is going to end. I knew that Megan was desperately wanting to get into Notre Dame and I certainly didn’t know if she would’ve or not. I knew Hannah wanted to escape and move to California, but I already knew that because she told me. But I didn’t know if she would actually do that. Ultimately that wasn’t something that I could control.
Is it difficult to commit to a film like this, not know how it’s going to play out? How hard is it to devote all your time and resources to this project with the thought at the back of your mind that the characters that you’ve chosen, their lives could alter drastically and change the course of the film?
I think that it still would’ve had a compelling story no matter how it ended. You know, if Megan hadn’t gotten in to Notre Dame for example, that still would’ve been fascinating too, because she would’ve had to readjust who she was and her whole perception of herself and how she fit in with her family and her world. And, you know if Hannah hadn’t have gone on to California and she hadn’t broken up with her boyfriend, that would’ve been interesting also. As long as you know that they have a projected interest, you know that they have something that they’re trying to achieve and you watch that play out, I’m not sure that I would’ve had a bad film if it had ended differently, it just would’ve been different.
Did you alter the way you wanted to portray certain character to how they turned out to be in reality? It seemed like Megan was meant to play the villain character. But over the course of the film you feel yourself develop respect for her. And it seemed like you brought in her closest friend who almost fulfilled that villain role for her. Is that a fair comment?
The thing is that I knew that Megan’s sister had committed suicide and I knew that before we started filming, and I knew she responded well to the pressure and I knew that there was a very human side to her that would’ve come out in the movie, otherwise I wouldn’t have even put her in the movie. I don’t reveal that to the audience right away because you know I want them to see Megan the way that her peers see her in a very kind of one dimensional way and then ultimately surprise the audience by saying what she really is and all that she has going on and that she really is complicated. You didn’t realise that this experience, that you know the way that their peers see them first and then going in to who they really are, that whole identity issue. Yeah, so I do craft the film in the editing room to lay out information in a way that keeps you surprised and keeps you entertained and keeps you revealing things as time goes on. But me as a filmmaker, I knew that before.
Is there a fine line when you’re in the editing room between entertainment and truth in documentary filmmaking? I understand that you had a ridiculous amount of footage to cut down into ninety-five minutes and obviously there has to be some level of manipulation when you’re cutting that much material down. Do you find yourself torn when deciding whether to cut something that may be very entertaining but may misrepresent a character or a storyline?
I feel as long as you’re honest and stay true to the people: I would never want to make someone seem like a jerk when they weren’t, or that they did break up with their boyfriend but I chose not to show you that because it’s more entertaining. I would never manipulate it that way. Obviously when you cut something down to ninety minutes there is, in any documentary there is some amount of manipulation that goes on. But I think you have to kind of balance it; it’s an interesting quality because you do always have to be balancing it against your morality in a way. You know, am I being honest? I wouldn’t want to put something in just to entertain that ultimately was not an honest moment or an honest depiction of someone.
As you’re shooting, do you feel the moments as they happen that you think will be in the final edit? Do you capture a moment and say this is going to make the cut for sure?
Yes. Definitely. And there are moments where you capture something and you say well, I never have to look at these tapes again. Where absolutely nothing happens – people play cards for four hours. And then there are these incredibly dramatic moments that happen where as soon as I’ve got them on tape, I know that they are going in.
Did you ever have the cameras off where something happened that you wish you caught?
Oh sure, or I just wasn’t there. You can’t be everywhere all the time. Or you captured a lot of other moments where you don’t seem to have enough to tell the whole story. But what I think this film does succeed in is feeling like you’re there: not every possible moment but that’s because, again, I’m taking a year of someone’s life and putting it into ninety minutes. But there’s definitely moments that you’re going to miss.
How close did you get to the subjects over the 10 months?
Really close: really, really close. You know, if I hadn’t they would never have felt comfortable on camera and opened up and they really needed to trust me. I make these films too because I like the friendships that I make and I take the people that I want to spend time with and we end up really caring for each other. You know the film has been long over and we still talk on the phone and Hannah, she doesn’t live very far from me now and I see her every few weeks and I think we’ll always be friends. It’s pretty cool.
