American Teen is a 2008 American documentary film directed by Nanette Burstein, and produced by 57th & Irving. It competed in the Documentary Competition at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, where it received the Directing Award Documentary. Following the Sundance Film Festival, the movie was picked up by Paramount Vantage and was released to general cinema July 25, 2008. Much of the movie was filmed at Warsaw Community High School in Warsaw, Indiana. Director Nanette Burstein originally reviewed more than 100 different schools in the pre-production process, and ten schools replied, agreeing to participate. After she interviewed incoming seniors at all 10, she chose Warsaw.

Synopsis

This documentary circles on the lives of five typical senior high students in a small town in Indiana—a heartthrob, an artist, a jock, a geek, and a popular girl. Filmed every day for 10 months, this documentary captures their inner workings and uncovers their insecurities, heartbreaks, struggles, cliques they belong to and deal with their weaknesses, and their fears about life beyond senior high.

Primary characters

Criticism

Some film critics have accused the director, Nanette Burstein (who won the directing award at Sundance ), of giving the documentary a sensationalized feel, and others have gone so far as to claim that the film feels scripted and the very presence of the cameras take the reality out of the situation. One continual issue with the movie was that Tusing was continually forced to "get a girlfriend" in order not to be removed from the film.