Teenage

The documentary argues that adolescence is not an age but an invention: before the twentieth century there was no such category. People went straight from childhood into work and adulthood. The film follows the period from the 1900s to the 1950s: children working in factories, war, scouting, swing clubs, the Hitler Youth and the first youth fashions in America. Matt Wolf directed the film from Jon Savage's book of the same name; the two of them wrote the screenplay together. The telling mixes archive footage with reconstructions and moves through texts read from the diaries of real young people. The narration is read by actors including Jena Malone and Ben Whishaw. Bradford Cox of Deerhunter wrote the music. The film screened at Tribeca in 2013.