amanda mcbaine – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

TEENAGE WASTELAND – Review by Sarah Ward

November 19, 2025August 27, 2026 Sarah Ward amanda mcbaine, Christopher Passig, documentaries, jesse moss, Middletown High School, Teenage Wasteland, toxic waste

Teenage Wasteland’s 90s-era high schoolers were 80s kids first. As they grew up across both decades, they danced towards adolescence and then ran at adulthood during one of teen cinema’s heydays, as well as in a prime time for films about life-changing teachers. Their tale, so that of Middletown High School pupils Rachel Raimist, Mike Regan, Jeff Dutemple, David Birmingham and others in New York’s Orange County, could easily give rise to a throwback movie perfectly of their coming-of-age period: about a ragtag gang of disparate and rebellious youths brought together in a single class (not Saturday detention, but The Breakfast Club does quickly spring to mind) and the educator who taught them not just to seize the day Dead Poets Society-style but to truly care about the world that they live in.

Festivals Reviews

MIDDLETOWN (Sundance FF 2025) – Review by Leslie Combemale

February 3, 2025February 2, 2025 Leslie Combemale (Sundance FF 2025), amanda mcbaine, David Birmingham, documentary, Fred Isseks, Garbage Gangsters and Greed, Jeff Dutemple, jesse moss, media studie, Middletown New York, Mike Regan, Rachel Raimist, toxic waste, Trey Long

When done well, there’s little better than a documentary that features footage of folks in both the present and as they were decades ago. These stories are like time capsules, with multiple and often diverse perspectives and memories of the same experience. Such a movie requires a deft hand at both interviewing the subjects and editing compelling and pertinent scenes from the past. Middletown has all that, while telling a story of corporate greed, dangers to the environment and community, that is just as relevant today as it was 30 years ago. The film profiles the story of a group of teens in the early 1990s, who uncovered and documented the issues happening around toxic waste sites near Middletown New York. While in retrospect their film may look amateurish, and original filmmakers didn’t get the results they’d hoped for, it has left important and historic documentation of what can only be called “bad shit going down and intrepid idealistic kids trying to put an end to it”. Hurray for them!

Reviews

GIRLS STATE – Review by Diane Carson

March 21, 2024March 24, 2024 Diane Carson amanda mcbaine, Apple TV+, boys state, documentaries, Girls State, jesse moss, Lindenwood University

An energetic, working community emerges in Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss’ Girls State as hundreds of Missouri high school teenagers share a week, June 2022, on Lindenwood University’s campus. There they organize into groups and form a government, including self-declared candidates campaigning and the entire citizens collective electing a Governor, Supreme Court Justices, an Attorney General, and more. As each candidate promotes herself, alliances are formed and competition amplified amidst tense nerves. These five hundred diverse Missourians bond, debate, strategize, and gain immense insight into the democratic world.

Reviews

THE MISSION – Review by Valerie Kalfrin

October 6, 2023October 7, 2023 Valerie Kalfrin amanda mcbaine, Andaman Islands, jesse moss, John Chau, National Geographic Documentary, Sentinelese, The Mission

As a youth, John Chau fell in love with the exploits of Robinson Crusoe, dreamed of living in the trees on the beach, and believed God had adventures planned for him. At just twenty-six, he was so focused on one adventure—evangelizing to the indigenous people on an isolated island east of India—that it took his life.

Reviews

BOYS STATE – Review by Diane Carson

August 14, 2020August 14, 2020 Diane Carson 0 Comments amanda mcbaine, apple, boys state, documentaries, jesse moss, Texas Boys State, true/false film festival

Directors Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss capture today’s politics in a microcosm through their documentary Boys State, a spirited, unpredictable look at the 2018 Texas Boys State experience. a week-long event where eleven hundred 17-year-olds, arbitrarily assigned to the fictional Federalists or Nationalists group, square off in representative elections, the most consequential for Boys State Governor.

Festivals

Sundance 2020: Female-Directed Films – Leslie Combemale reports

January 28, 2020February 3, 2020 Leslie Combemale 0 Comments amanda mcbaine, eliza hittman, emerald fennel, heidi ewing, Julie Taymore, liz garbus, radha blank, sundance film festival 2020

I saw only films directed by women this year, and my focus was on films from the Latinx community, as well as World films from diverse cultures, and African-American filmmakers. How absolutely delightful that I found nearly all of the movies I saw to be well-crafted, compelling, and unique, but a number of them were to be more widely celebrated because they’d gained distribution or won awards, or both.