"My generation, despite our political differences, want to end the gridlock of partisanship. We want to strive, not as republicans or democrats, left or right, but as Americans, towards a brighter future. Ladies and gentleman, this is America, we are America, and America is us." - Steven Garza
Directors: Amanda McBaine, Jesse Moss
Release Date: August 14th, 2020
Where Available: Apple TV+
Summary:
A thousand 17-year-old boys from Texas join together to build a representative government from the ground up.
Review:
The American Legion has run Boys State since 1935 and is one of the most respected educational programs of government instruction for US High School Students, both male and female. Participants focus on the structure of city, county, and state governments. The boys in this documentary are split into two parties, federalists and nationalists, and are then tasked to run political campaigns for positions of government, the highest being governor.
There are several famous politicians that also attended Boys State in high school, like Bill Clinton and Corey Booker. Just participating in this convention doesn't necessarily mean these boys will have the same success level, but will definitely prepare them for the changing American political system.
The first image of the documentary is a quote from George Washington. He states that "Political parties are likely to become potent engines by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and usurp for themselves the reins of government." Washingtons statement starts to play out as we see the two undefined parties slowly become left and right-wing based, with the most prominent issues being the second amendment.
Federalists and Nationalists. These two parties have no political opinions or positions defined at the start of the convention. Both will be decided and filled in when the parties vote for leadership. Boys State mostly focuses on the state district chairs and those in the running for Governor. Eventually, we are left with one man from each party: Eddy Proietti Conti for the Federalists and Steven Garza for the Nationalists.
Conti and Garza have help on their campaigns from their district chairs, Rene Otero and Ben Feinstein. They all act more mature than the average teenage boy, especially when tasked with controlling a room filled with a thousand other teenagers,
Another boy the documentary focuses on is Robert MacDougal, a Nationalist who was running against Garza for Governor. He explains his campaign strategy to us, and its pretty straight froward: lying about his own pro-choice opinions to appeal to his mostly conservative party. The lesson he learns after loosing is quite sad, but true: "Sometimes you can't win on what you believe in your heart. It's a morally questionable thing to lie in politics. [Boys State] gave me a new appreciation for why politicians lie to get into office."
This is a documentary that will be a completely different experience based on your political affiliation and experience. My best friends brother actually attended Boys State a few years ago, and said it was one of the most interesting experiences of his life. To me, this documentary was really engaging. Whether you agree with what the boys are saying or how they are running their campaigns, it is still so interesting to see how they created their own small scale government from scratch. I was a mix of scared and hopeful after watching this documentary, because these boys are part of my generation and will be the future of politics.
With the 2020 election in the near future, I think it is really important, for my generation especially, to watch this documentary. Boys State is a microcosm of real world politics, and will allow you to be both entertained and educated while watching. This is not the last time we will be hearing about the boys in this documentary, so get familiar with them now!
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