American Teen is a 2008 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

• Hannah Bailey – the rebel . Hannah is an artist, musician, writer and wannabe filmmaker whose liberal views are not a good fit for the conservative small-town culture of Warsaw and she cannot wait until graduation when she can finally leave Indiana. Early in the year, her long-time boyfriend breaks her heart, causing her to miss weeks of school while she recovers from the heartbreak, and later, while she deals with possible embarrassment at school for missing so many days. She dates Mitch for a while during the year, but their relationship causes friction with his clique of friends, and he breaks up with her via text message. Because of this at the year s end, she heads to San Francisco to live for a year before attending film school in New York.
• Colin Clemens – the jock . Colin is a well liked, humorous student whose primary focus during the year is athletics. As the star basketball player for Warsaw, he realizes the year is a make-or-break opportunity to impress scouts and get a scholarship. To not get a scholarship will likely mean enlisting in the military – something his father constantly brings up through the film. He ends up attending Indiana Tech on a Basketball Scholarship, where he obtains a place on the Dean s List with a 3.7 GPA.
• Megan Krizmanich – the queen bee or princess . Megan is a popular student in many ways. She is academically talented, popular, and involved in many extracurricular activities. Her ultimate goal is to get into the University of Notre Dame, something that many of her family members have done before her. She is mean, but she is also humanized by the portrayal of her own social and emotional struggles. It is revealed that after graduation she went on to attend Notre Dame to study Pre-Med and Finance, also mentioning that she has mellowed out and is not much of a mean girl anymore.
• Mitch Reinholt – the heartthrob . Mitch is popular at school because of his easygoing ways, his good looks, and his sports talent (he is a teammate of Colin s). He is the least featured of the five primary students, and is even left off some versions of the film s movie poster. Mitch features prominently into the story when he starts dating Hannah. He ends up attending Indiana University, where he studies Biochemistry and Pre-Med.
• Jake Tusing – the geek or gamer . Jake is an introverted student whose hobbies are the marching band and video games. He longs to find and keep a girlfriend, and much of his storyline revolves around his dating life. He ends up studying at Lawrence University for a year before attending Vincennes University.

Criticism

Some film critics have accused the director, Nanette Burstein, 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. Other issues include scripted arguments and cue cards.

Year	2008
ReleaseDate	2008-08-15
RuntimeMins	95
RuntimeStr	1h 35min
Plot	A documentary on seniors at a high school in a small Indiana town and their various cliques.
Awards	Awards, 2 wins & 5 nominations
Directors	Nanette Burstein
Writers	Nanette Burstein
Stars	Hannah Bailey, Jake Tusing, Megan Krizmanich
Produced by	Sharon Barnes,Nanette Burstein,Rebecca Cammisa,Nancy Dubuc,Eli Gonda,Ryan Harrington,Chris Huddleston,Owen Katz,Elle Key,Karen Lawler,Anna Molund,Patrick R. Morris,Jordan Roberts,Steve Rosenbaum,Adina Sales,Rob Sharenow,Molly Thompson,Josh Thorne
Music by	Michael Penn
Cinematography by	Robert Hanna,Wolfgang Held,Laela Kilbourn
Film Editing by	Nanette Burstein,Thomas Haneke,Mary Manhardt
Casting By	Tamra Barcinas
Production Management	Greg Orselli
Art Department	Junko Shimizu,Måns Swanberg,Paige Travis
Sound Department	Mark Binder,Mike Chock,Mark Coffey,Ken Dabek,Stefan Fraticelli,Mark A. Mangini,Dave Plowman,Matthew Reale,Anna Rieke,John Sievert,J. Byron Smith,Randy Wilson,Rebecca Cammisa
Visual Effects by	Micha Boström,Cecilia Chien,Wyeth Hansen,Matthew W. Johnson,David Kelley,Stefan Lagerstam,Kristian Rydberg,Adam Sackett,Lutz Vogel,Roger P. Wasson
Camera and Electrical Department	Tamas Bojtor,Axel Bowman,Rebecca Cammisa,Samuel M. Henriques,David Lobser,Ed Marritz,Vasco Nunes,James Rexroad,Eliot Rockett,Brett Wiley
Animation Department	Ariadne Binderl,Aaron Bjork,Cecilia Carlstedt,Matthew Encinas,Paul Hwang,Diogo Kalil,George Katz,Ben Lee,Shu-Chen Lin,Alex Lins,David Lobser,Derek Picken,Alli Sadegiani,Cecilia Skedinger,Sean Starkweather,Måns Swanberg,Lutz Vogel,Andreas Westin,Zoe Wishart,Steve Woodruff,Aron Ögren
Editorial Department	Doug Delaney,Katie Dellamaggiore,Jonathan Giraldo,Jason M. Harvey,Matthew W. Johnson,Jennifer Lee,Timothy Lozada,Gregory Maratea,Rebecca Merle,Charles Olivier,Kris Santa Cruz,William Lehman,Cyril Merle,Jaron Whitfill
Music Department	Amjad Albasel,Jay Bellerose,Caroline Buckman,Matthew Cooker,Marcy Dicterow-Vaj,Richard Dodd,Chris Douridas,Ryan Freeland,Terry Glenny,Eric Gorfain,Leah Katz,James King,John Krovoza,Marisa Kuney,Joe Lisanti,Bruce MacFarlane,Craig MacIntyre,Peter Nevil,Dan Ostermann,Jonathan Palmer,Alyssa Park,Michael Penn,Nic Rainer,Melissa Reiner,Jim Schultz,The Section Quartet,Niko Toubia,Patrick Warren,Amy Wickman,Alwyn Wright
Additional Crew	Claire L. Chandler,Kelsey Coleman,Vincent J. Cook III,Alfred DeGrand,Jacqueline Eckhouse,Andrew Esterly,Nicholas Feitel,John B. Finn,Ryan Garrett,Ted Gesing,Brian Hayashi,Pete Hayes,Amy Israel,Alex J. Johnson,David Kelley,Paul Kresge,Daniel Manco,Adam Mandel,Adam Messenger,Bernard Moor-Jankowski,Chris Ohlson,Keith Overton,Erin Owens,Emily Radecki,Adam Sackett,Jared Sales,German R. Sanchez,Michael Smith,Melody Storm,Roger P. Wasson,A.M. Peters
Thanks	Hannah Bailey,Colin Clemens,Geoff Haase,Megan Krizmanich,Jennifer Lucht,Mitch Reinholt,Jennifer Shepherd,Jake Tusing,Ali Wikalinska
Genres	Documentary
Companies	57th & Irving Productions, A&E IndieFilms, Blacklist
Countries	USA
Languages	English
ContentRating	PG-13
ImDbRating	6.4
ImDbRatingVotes	4178
MetacriticRating	66
Keywords	watching tv,principal,vice principal,school,indiana