Docu-Democracy

The Institute’s Arts Program screens the award-winning Boys State.

Give NowHow healthy is democracy today? Boys State, the winner of the 2020 Sundance Grand Jury Prize Documentary, asks that question. The film follows high school students at Texas American Legion Boys State, a highly selective weeklong program where teens build a representative government from the ground up. Alumni of the Legion’s Boys State and Girls State programs include Justice Samuel Alito, Texas Governor Ann Richards, Senator Cory Booker, Vice President Dick Cheney, and President Bill Clinton. In July 2020 the Arts Program co-presented a pre-release screening and discussion of Boys State during the Eisner/ Lauder New Views Documentaries and Dialogue series, featuring filmmakers Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss and three of the film’s stars, Ben Feinstein, Steven Garza, and René Otero.

These teenagers, with diverse backgrounds and views, revealed humbling and insightful reflections on the state of politics. Feinstein acknowledged that he mirrored the smear campaigns too often seen in politics today. “We’ve denigrated our politics in a lot of ways, and I embodied that,” he said. “We have a wider democracy to defend that these values are not compatible with.” Asked whether their generation can change the current political dysfunction, Otero said he trusts in Generation Z’s strength but cautions that the effort can’t be theirs alone: “It’s the responsibility of older generations to give resources to younger folks—to give us these platforms—if you also want to see America change.” Garza agreed: “Young people have an interest in politics and getting involved. For the long-term health of our nation, that’s a good thing.”