Civics lessons
Teens take the lead in ‘Boys State’ documentary
For Steven Garza, the Sundance-winning “Boys State” caps a tumultuous time. “I’m starring in a movie,” Garza, 19, marveled, “and I’m recovering from COVID!”
“Boys State” documents an American Legion-sponsored weeklong citizenship project where 1,000 17-yearolds create a representative government over the course of a week
Three youths were chosen by directors Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine in advance so that on Day One they had their key characters in the developing story.
“Steven has this incredible personal story of a bootstrap kid whose mother is an undocumented (Mexican) immigrant,” Moss noted.
Indeed, Garza’s mother worked at a gas station; he’s the first in his family to pass freshman year high school.
“It’s almost like I have to succeed,” he said. “To have parents proud of you is one of the most amazing things you can hear in your life.”
Garza, who enrolled in Navy Junior ROTC in high school, was keenly interested in politics. With “70 kids from our area,” he went to Boys State orientation and was introduced to Moss the filmmaker, and cinematographer Thorsten Thielow.
“Jesse asked if I was interested to hang around after for a conversation. About 12 of us stayed back, me being reserved and quiet. Some of the kids were doing these fiery rants to get noticed.”
Looking back, he wonders, “Who knew why I was getting Jesse’s attention? We went out to eat so he could know me better. At the end of the interview he asked, ‘Would you want to be a subject?’
“That was a month before. I had no idea of the scale of the documentary. When I showed up there were seven camera crews. I had a microphone, cameraman and a boom man with me from 7 in the morning until the end at night.
“I wasn’t expecting any of this. I thought this was a side project. Two years later it’s a Sundance-winning film. It’s all surreal.”
One sign the filmmakers knew what they were doing: All their choices figure prominently in the week’s political dramas.
“It was a crazy journey,” Garza mused. “I had done local media with the March for Life (in high school) but I’d never had a camera following me around.
“So those scenes of me campaigning (in ‘Boys State’) were baby steps of not looking at the camera next to you.
“Jesse said, ‘Pretend we’re not there’ — while putting the camera next to my face! I started laughing. But as the week went on, it just became natural. ‘There’s Daniel (Carter) with the camera and his assistant with the boom stick.’”