Mitch Reinholt: As Teen as He is Christian Many of us have kids who are as teen as they are Christian. If not, we can remember when we dressed in that confused identity, when the fears, pressures, and hopes of being a high schooler bled into our Christian experience. Mitch Reinholt was also such a teen, but unlike most of us, on July 25 Reinholt's senior year will be released on screens close to 80 feet long and 40 feet tall, all over the country. "American Teen" is an intimate and moving documentary that explores the daily struggles of five high schoolers' senior year in a small town in Indiana: the rebel, the geek, the popular girl, the jock, and Reinholt as the hearthrob. "The movie really shows that regardless of what label you have, everybody has something that they are struggling with." Reinholt said, "Everybody has a problem, and in a lot of ways all of those problems are similar. So its kind of like nobody really has the perfect life despite what people say or think." Reinholt explained his role as a fifth, accessory character in the documentary that helps explain three of the other four main stories. He plays basketball with "the jock," dates "the rebel," and is good friends with "the popular girl." Pressured by his friend, Reinholt's personal life is absorbed in the drama of the documentary when he breaks up with Hannah Bailey, "the rebel," through a text message. Though they are now close friends, he said he regrets what happened. "I liked watching the other peoples stories better than my own." Reinholt said, "I get uncomfortable, and almost can not even watch some of the more difficult times. At the same time it's real, it's what happened. I mean, other people go through very similar things and if they can relate to it in any way than its kind of a cool thing." After narrowing her search down to 10 High Schools Nanette Burstein conducted hundreds of intense interviews to find a group of savvy yet sincere, tough yet funny, anxious yet articulate kids who seemed to both encompass and defy the typical teen stereotypes. "Given the themes I wanted to explore, Warsaw had the richest subjects and storylines," Burstein said. At first Reinholt wasn't excited about having cameras follow him around all year, but Burstein quickly earned his trust. "She made her intentions very clear from the beginning." Reinholt said, "She brought in all of our families and sat us all down in the same room and said, 'Listen I am not hear to make any of you, or your families, or the city look bad. I just really want to get to know you and hear your story.'" After moving to Warsaw, Burstein spent a lot of time just with the kids and without the camera crews. They played with each other's dogs, Burstein took them out to dinner, introduced them to her husband when he was in town, and she played tennis with Reinholt. Because of the friendship they developed, when the cameras were around Reinholt said that he wasn't even aware of them - it was just hanging out with Nanette. Burstein was also careful about respecting their space. "There were times when certain people didn't feel like being filmed, so I had to really weigh each situation," Burstein said. "I didn't want to ever expose them in damaging ways. But I always wanted to show their complicatedness and humanity." Burstein also filmed Reinholt at church and at his youth group, though none of it actually made it into the film. Reinholt modestly said his personal story wasn't explored in the documentary because his life was not "film worthy." Charmingly unaware, by publicly facing his struggles and admitting his regrets he restores the church from her self-righteous image to the broken bride in need of a savior, and Christ bleeds back into high school. Wesley McKnight 7/10/08 GHM Newsletter article