Boys State

Every year in Texas more than a thousand high school students come together for a week and build a state government from nothing: two parties, campaigns, primaries and a race for governor. The documentary follows the 2018 programme and concentrates on four boys. Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss put the camera into the backroom conversations, the strategy meetings and the smear campaigns, and within a week the boys discover every instrument of adult politics on their own. That is also what makes it uncomfortable: nobody taught them this. Its most striking figure is a candidate who chooses to win by concealing his own views. It took the grand jury prize at Sundance and was distributed by Apple TV+ and A24. Who it is for: viewers who like political documentary and observational films about the young. Who it is not for: anyone expecting an optimistic conclusion.