Apple’s Girls State was shot at the perfect time to be absolutely outrageous

In 2020, film partners Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss released Boys stands, a startling, compulsively watchable documentary that packs all of America’s political shortcomings into one competitive event. McBaine and Moss participated in the 2018 Texas edition of Boys State, an annual leadership event that brings together a thousand teenage boys to form a fake US government. McBaine and Moss followed a handful of contestants as they vied for public office and learned terrible lessons about American politics, alternating between acting as jaded statesmen and acting as teenage boys. One of the most obvious questions that came out of that documentary was: what does the girls’ version of the same event look like?

The filmmakers on Apple TV Plus answered that question with Girls standsa structurally similar documentary made during the 2022 Missouri edition the affiliated event for teenage girls. It turns out that audiences and filmmakers aren’t the only ones wondering how the experiences of Boys State and Girls State might differ: during the filming Girls stands‘s central subjects, Emily Worthmore, launches an investigation into the disparity in the programs’ funding, rules, and focus, and unearths some unsurprising truths. Between those revelations and the exact point in 2022 when the documentary was shot, Girls stands is perfectly tailored to infuriate – and just as telling as Boys stands was about the state of America.

Worthmore is one of the few subjects the documentary filmmakers stick to, as she lays out her expectations for the program (and her ambitious future political career), enters the event, runs for office, faces disappointment, and then begins her investigation to how the boys’ and girls’ programs compare. The downsizing of Worthmore’s ambitions is sobering: her belief at the beginning of the film that she wants to run for president of the United States in 2040 crumbles over the course of just one week in Girls State.

Just like Boys standsThroughout the documentary, there is a sense that the experiences of the individuals profiled mirror similar stories of hundreds of participants, any of whom could have been an equally compelling (or even more compelling) central character. There’s a lot going on at this event, as so many ambitious, precocious young activists report that they’ve been gratifyingly successful and central to their own hometown student governments—and then have to face, for the first time, the idea that they might not be all that bad. appear as exceptional or remarkable as soon as they enter a larger pond. At the same time, many of them seem to be meeting people with different political beliefs for the first time. And while they all announce their intention to hear the opposition without malice and really dig into the issues, the filmmakers continue to capture them talking over each other or taking each other out.

But there is a more enchanting and sad thread running through it Girls stands comes from the timing: the event took place in the window between the leak showing the Supreme Court’s intention to overturn it Roe v. Wade and the actual verdict is released. Time and time again, the filmmakers capture Girls State participants and confidently argue that the Court would not do so Actually to take such extreme action – including at an event where the Girls State Supreme Court, made up entirely of teenage girls, soberly rules on whether women should be legally forced to undergo counseling before having an abortion.

Compared to the newer document, Boys stands feels much more internal and self-focused. The central subjects in that documentary similarly lose some of their naivety and optimism about American politics, but that is solely due to the interaction with each other and their own political system. In contrast, the subjects of Girls stands trying to express their confidence in their power and impact in the world, while at the same time seeing how their country denies them rights over their own bodies and emphasizes their powerlessness. There’s a deeply uncomfortable irony in watching them work to craft their own political beliefs and futures while their government closes off their options.

While that’s not the primary focus here, the film is still full of a sickening interplay between the intended empowerment of this political playground of youth culture and the weakening of real politics and sexism, including the facts Worthmore digs up about the financing of Girls State. and rules. And there’s an equally compelling, thought-provoking interplay between the various social pressures these girls feel: to compete with each other yet support each other, to be forceful yet polite, decisive yet open-minded. The central subjects are smart and self-aware enough to see how these pressures conflict, and to discuss and debate them.

That alone holds Girls stands of being depressing. Rather, it’s fascinating to see how McBaine and Moss string all the different stories together, capturing both the similarities between the girls they highlight and the differences between how they approach the event and what they get out of it. Like its companion piece, Girls stands zeroes in on what it feels like to be young, confident, and politically ambitious in America right now, and captures the kinds of pressures that drive the next generation to tune out or take action. Worthmore seems to emerge from the project with new determination and purpose. I hope she’s not alone.

Girls stands is now streaming on Apple TV Plus.