Old America’s Young Men: How A24’s ‘Boys State’ Reinvents the Democratic Project

America’s latest page of history is a curious one. The penmanship is incoherent and the visuals are abstract. Our national narrative is a mess of reality, brutality, and wide-eyed fantasy. From this hurricane of national uncertainty, "Boys State" was born. Known for their unconventional, often wildly thought-provoking undertakings including “Moonlight” (2016), “Mid90s” (2018), “Midsommar” (2019), and “Uncut Gems” (2019), A24 proves that the best is yet to come.

It is Texas in the dead heat of June, and the annual Boys State summer program has begun in its characteristic pomp and circumstance. With a quintessentially American fanfare playing in the background, a brief description of Boys State scrolls across the screen: “Since 1935, the American Legion has sponsored a program for teenagers to learn about democracy and civil discourse through a week-long experiment in self-governance.” Sepia-tinted photographs of alumni like Bill Clinton, Samuel Alito, and Dick Cheney float across the viewer’s sightline.

Boys State is a democratic experiment — think Model United Nations or Junior State of America on steroids. The documentary film closely follows four participants: charismatic Southern Westpoint-hopeful Robert MacDougall, political junky Ben Feinstein, Chicago native René Otero, and underdog Steven Garza. Each of these characters presents distinct tropes of current political affairs in the United States. Campers, randomly divided into the Nationalist and Federalist parties, campaign for various positions — the most prestigious one being the Governorship.

Despite being in the racial and political minority, Garza, now a freshman at University of Texas at Austin, manages to secure the gubernatorial candidacy for the Nationalist party in an upset against MacDougall. Feinstein and Otero win their respective parties’ State Party Chair elections. Though Garza and the Nationalist Party ultimately lose in a tight race against the Federalist party, the film illuminates Garza’s ability to unite people and approach those with radically different political beliefs with humility, dignity, and compassion — suggesting the possibility of a new political normal.

In a recent “Boys State” College Conference Call hosted by A24 Studios, Garza, Feinstein, and MacDougall, along with directors Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine, spoke on their process making the film.

Moss and McBaine commented on their inclusion of minority voices in the film. "[Texas is] still a big majority of conservative and white groups, and so we were very excited to follow Steven through this process because he was a little bit of an underdog, you know, in a lot of ways,” McBaine said.

Both commented on their initial reservations about Garza’s capacity to lead, as well as their pleasant surprise when he eventually did. “He really inspired people to their sort of better selves and I love that about what we experienced when we watched it, and what it just reminds me that this country is capable of if people are given a chance and their voices heard,” McBaine said.

The subjects of the film, also present at the conference call, pitched in their two cents on the restrictions and structural challenges of the American political system.

“I don’t think that your values and your ability to win an election are actually mutually exclusive,” Feinstein said. “I would much rather vote for someone who I disagree with who I think is honest, respectable, will make a call based on evidence, than someone who says what I want to hear but I don’t trust to have those morals.”

MacDougall mentioned how refreshing it was to witness real progress and political compromise be made at Boys State. “That’s something you don’t see in actual big-world politics,” the Texan native said. “I hope we’re able to see more of that — actual difference-making, actual conversations, actual moving forward on important things."

Garza called attention to the danger of beleaguering the superficiality of labels and the importance of leveraging the underlying humanity of all constituents when engaging in political processes: “I wish that more politicians around the country would actually sit down with the opposition,” Garza said, “not the enemy, the opposition.”

Brandon Barzola, a reporter at the University of Connecticut’s The Daily Campus expressed his appreciation of the conference call.

“I found the documentary to be really impressive and impactful,” Barzola said, “So hearing stories about both the filmmaking process and Texas Boys State from the filmmakers and subjects alike was really interesting.”

Kate Button, a reporter at the University of Utah’s The Daily Utah Chronicle, voiced similar sentiments. “While the film on its own was an incredible feat of vérité filmmaking and offered unique insights into our current political climate,” Button said, “I was fascinated to hear how the directors, Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine, approached the filming and editing process.”

“The film beautifully captured the chaos and competition of the Boys State program,” Button continued, “The in-depth focus on these few subjects highlighted the necessity of seeing people for their humanity rather than their party identity.”

What democratic traditions will the leaders of tomorrow choose to reinforce, and what political wings will they begin growing today? In our new normal, it is difficult to say. However, “Boys State” dares viewers to believe that some things might just change. As the conference call concluded and students began to log off the Zoom session, the subjects’ and filmmakers’ voices still rang in the air, passionate, profound, and very much hopeful.