An interactive method. We’re eager to meet adolescents more than half way. Across three continents, our encounters will run the gamut of contemporary teen contexts. Everywhere we go we’ll be looking for the most casual of receptions and for relaxed and candid response to our inquiry. For any question we ask, the teen can feel free to ask one of his/her own. Certain interviews could open with an invitation to “play God”. How would a teen God(dess) rearrange the universe? As the Supreme Power, teens might also be challenged for allowing atrocities and human suffering. This playful ‘holy interview’ format might elicit some decidedly serious responses.

Adolescent Sublime will build upon interviews with teens on their own turf. Music, montage and a swerving narrative trajectory will take us from one teen scene to the next.

Endeavoring to inspire spontaneity, interviews will be conducted on teens’ own stomping grounds. From “all-ages” concerts on the edge of American youth culture, to the “train-spotting” exercises emblematic of European teenage ennui, and further through the indentured servitude often found amid the “developing” world’s adolescents; whether there is time to chill and hang-out, or a mere minute’s illicit cigarette-break, this film will record youth perspectives on the world ‘like it is’.

Converging angles of inquiry are key to this essay in film. Contrasts and comparisons with previous generations of teens; Asian vs. American vs. European, African or Latin experiences; homeless vs. privileged perspectives; the possibilities are potentially limitless. Montage sequences will serve to evoke each of our teen subjects’ home turf as well as our team’s progress from one onto the next. Velocity and a swerving trajectory of narrative and narration might sum up the effect. Teens are like anyone else; inwardly they can be mercurial, in turmoil, ecstatic or deeply depressed. Meanwhile, on the outside all must be taken for what it seems. Mirrored in film, we hope our teen portrait will emerge as a whole. Reflective or expressive, each teen we talk to contributes to a kaleidoscope of adolescent ideas. Image, speech, (sub)titles and music; all these discursive modes will combine to accommodate the teen message.

A Few of the Stops Along Our Way