A couple days ago I finally watched BOYS STATE, a documentary on Apple TV+. I'd heard good things and I'd resolved to watch it eventually but what really pushed me over the finish line was the realization that my free trial of Apple TV+ was finally going to run out in December. It's nice when certain financial imperatives* help you clear the deck and make a decision.
(*I mean, it's like five bucks a month. And I will certainly sign up again as soon as Mythic Quest and Ted Lasso return in the summer. But until then there's no real reason to maintain yet another monthly subscription, especially one where you can so easily get out clean -- like I can't leave Hulu because it's tied to my Spotify account, and I can't leave Netflix because it just feels spiritually wrong. I almost never watch Netflix and it's the most expensive service! And yet, they're the O.G. and you have to respect your elders.)
BOYS STATE is great. Some documentaries are the kind where you are absolutely shocked that the filmmakers lucked into the story they got to tell. CATFISH was, for me, the prime example of such a doc. (I get the sense that ICARUS is another recent example--though I haven't seen it yet! I know, I know!) BOYS STATE is sort of the opposite of that -- it tells a story that you can be reasonably certain unfolds everywhere, all the time. It's not catching lightning in a bottle -- it's catching the rain. But it does a tremendous job catching that rain, in such a way that makes us appreciate both the rain itself and the process of catching it so patiently and deliberately.
It follows several teenage boys at the Texas chapter of Boys State 2018, which is sort of a government camp run by the American Legion. Over the course of a week, these 16 and 17-year-olds simulate the process of government and party politics. They campaign for office, establish a platform, debate and pass legislation, and elect a governor. They also have a talent show. By focusing primarily on four different boys and tracing their path across the week, the filmmakers demonstrate the many ways in which people move through politics and politics moves through them. It ends up being about, in a grand sense, our entire political system and a look at the potential origins of the adults currently running the real show, but it's also about moral fiber and the lack thereof, and the ways we can be tested without even knowing its happening; though the film builds to a climactic race for Governor, the real contest happens along the way.
I actually attended Boys State NH when I was 17, which I was only hazily recalled when I started watching -- the modern, Texan version of the camp is much more sophisticated than the version I experienced, but sequences of deliberation in the mock House of Representatives brought at least a few memories back to me. I went with my friend Josh, who remembered more than I did -- we were suggested for the program by our High School Civics teacher, who in Josh's words deployed us there as "the tip of the spear for the libs."
In high school I was fiery and colorful when it came to politics -- I remember being frustrated by having to register for the draft in order to receive financial aid for college, and so in response I wrote my Selective Service number on my arm in black sharpie. Very subtle, yes? I listened to Desaparecidos a lot and gravitated toward radical poetry and literature. (Growing up in a tourist town in the Lakes Region, I had very little personal experience with the struggles they spoke of, but I was an eager and early ally.) For class projects I'd use two patched-together VCRs to edit together montages of clips from cable news TV -- Saddam Hussein's capture juxtaposed with cereal commercials. Probably not my best work, but I can see why my high school teachers thought it was pretty cool.
Josh reminded me that the hot issue at the time of our Boys State session was flag burning. How quaint, right? At the time, the American Legion was pushing for an anti-flag burning amendment, and encouraged us to debate its merits. I happily took up the "pro" side of the debates and immediately gathered that many of my more diplomatic peers might have agreed with me, but were firmly on the fence for the benefit of our patrons. It was a lesson that I remember very consciously choosing to ignore! And to their credit, the Legionnaires encouraged contrary views. I certainly absorbed that part, too. Hazy though my specific memories of Boys State were, my confidence that ignoring certain conventions and best practices would better serve me in my life turned out to be -- and continues even now to be -- very true.
