''Seventeen'' is a

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

directed by Joel DeMott and Jeff Kreines. It is a film about coming of age in working class America. It was awarded the Grand Jury prize at the 1985 Sundance Film Festival.

Critical reception

Vincent Canby of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' called ''Seventeen'', "one of the best and most scarifying reports on American life to be seen on a theater screen." In a later piece he added "It's Seventeen that haunts the memory. It has the characters and the language — as well as the vitality and honesty — that are the material of the best fiction. Ferociously provocative." Michael Sragow, writing in ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'', said: "Working with lightweight camera rigs they developed themselves, Jeff Kreines and Joel DeMott (who, despite the name, is female) approach the subjects of their documentary – working-class teenagers in Muncie, Indiana – man-to-man and woman-to-woman. The immediacy is refreshing, and shocking. As searing as it is rambunctious, this film brings out all the middle-class prejudices against the working class that American movies rarely confront." Johnny Ray Huston, writing in ''SF360'' and ''Indiewire'', said "One thing is for sure: ''Seventeen'' is without a doubt one of the greatest movies, perhaps the greatest, about teenage life (not to mention American life) ever made." Ira Glass, host of ''

This American Life ''This American Life'' (''TAL'') is an American monthly hour-long radio program produced in collaboration with Chicago Public Media and hosted by Ira Glass. It is broadcast on numerous public radio stations in the United States and internatio ...

'', said it was "the most amazing reporting on a high school that I had ever seen. It's called 'Seventeen' and it was directed by a couple, a woman named Joel DeMott and a man named Jeff Kreines. It was made in 1983, filmed at Southside High School in Muncie, Indiana. It's just this incredible document. It's so real and just one amazing moment after another."

Accolades

''Seventeen'' was awarded the Grand Jury prize in the field of documentary at the 1985 Sundance Film Festival, where the jurors were

Barbara Kopple Barbara Kopple (born July 30, 1946) is an American film director known primarily for her documentary work. She has won two Academy Awards, the first in 1977 for '' Harlan County, USA'', about a Kentucky miners' strike, /sup> and the second in ...

D. A. Pennebaker Donn Alan Pennebaker (; July 15, 1925 – August 1, 2019) was an American documentary filmmaker and one of the pioneers of direct cinema. Performing arts and politics were his primary subjects. In 2013, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sci ...

, and

Frederick Wiseman Frederick Wiseman (born January 1, 1930) is an American filmmaker, documentarian, and theater director. His work is "devoted primarily to exploring American institutions". He has been called "one of the most important and original filmmakers wor ...

References

External links

The filmmakers' Notes on ''Seventeen''

About ''Seventeen''

Johnny Ray Huston review of ''Seventeen''

Film Comment article about ''Seventeen''
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SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL. FILMS HONORED 1985–2008
page 17.
Link to see the uncensored version of ''Seventeen'' free

Trailer
{{end Sundance Film Festival award winners Documentary films about adolescence Films about the working class 1983 documentary films 1983 films American documentary films 1980s English-language films 1980s American films

Critical reception

Accolades

See also

References

External links