Sundance Institute and Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) announced “American Teen,” written and directed by Nanette Burstein, has been selected as the Opening Night Film for the third annual Sundance Institute at BAM.
An audience favorite and winner of the festival’s Documentary Directing Award, “American Teen” chronicles five seniors at an Indiana high school, yielding a surprising snapshot of Midwestern life.
The 2008 Sundance Institute at BAM runs May 29-June 8 in Brooklyn.
Sundance Institute at BAM programs take place in various venues at BAM and features film screenings, theater, musical performances, panel discussions, filmmaker Q&A sessions, screenplay readings, art installations and other events. The series presents 20 feature films and 36 short films and includes award-winning features and short films fresh from the 2008 Sundance Film Festival.
The entire 2008 Sundance Institute at BAM program announcement will be made in early April.
In “American Teen,” director Nanette Bernstein intimately follows the lives of five teenagers in a small town in Indiana through their senior year of high school. Using cinema vérité footage, interviews, and animation, she presents a vivid portrait of being 17 and all that goes with it. The film goes beyond the stereotypes of high school — the nerd and the jock, the homecoming queen and the arty misfit — to capture the complexity of young people trying to make their way into adulthood.
Burstein spent the entire 2005-2006 school year immersed in the lives of her subjects, shooting 1,000 hours of footage for her film.
BAM is at 30 Lafayette Avenue in the Fort Greene section of the borough; call 718-636-4100 or visit www.bam.org.
