Boys State - review
The conceit of a bunch of kids in control of institutions designed for adults is a universally fascinating one. It made the novel ‘Lord of the Flies’ into a household name and has inspired the creation of student political groups, model UN’s for example, in schools around the world. Of course to find the idea stretched to its absurd and terrifyingly compelling extreme you must look to America, where every year, in every state, an organisation called The American League runs Boy’s State, a week long camp were about a thousand sixteen and seventeen-year-olds get together to form to faux political parties and hold elections for various offices, culminating in state governor. The idea of hundreds of teenage boys playing mock politics sounds about a appealing as one of the circles of hell, but that’s the pit we’re taken into in the new documentary from Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine, which takes its title from the event, Boys State . Specifically, the film focuses in on a handful of ...