Teenage Wasteland

Name: Teenage Wasteland
Director: Amanda McBaine
Genre: Documentary
Released: 2025
Duration: 1 h 35 min

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Documentary

2025
Amanda McBaine
95 mins

Summary

In 1991, an eccentric teacher and his students exposed a toxic waste conspiracy through a DIY documentary. Decades later, they look back on its impact.

IMDB

Review

A star rating of 4 out of 5.

Amber Wilkinson

In 1991, a teacher in blue-collar Middletown, New York, looking for a way to engage his students' curiosity, created a class called "Electronic English". In the years that followed, a number of youngsters got to pick up a camera and make short films. Although these lessons covered fiction and music videos, it was journalism that really caught the kids' imagination. Not least when they started to investigate the local landfill site and discovered that toxins were leaking into the aquifer, causing health issues. The more the students dug, the dirtier the dealings looked, spanning everything from political malfeasance to the Mafia. Directors Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine (Boys State) catch up with some of the kids 30 years on, as they reflect on the high jinks and camaraderie of the course and the importance of inspirational teachers, along with what they uncovered and what it meant for them as young adults. This personal material adds an extra fascinating layer to what is already a compelling account of a slowly unfolding environmental disaster.

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7.3/10