True/False Films

glastonburykids

In person: director Justin Donais

Suburban teens around the country are obsessed with the MTV series Jackass, admiring its rebellion against polite, constricting society. But the Double G ("Double Gay") gang of Glastonbury, Conn. becomes quickly aware that its own acts of "medium rebellion" — driving into trees, jumping from the second floor of a local mall down into a plastic tree etc. — have life-altering consequences. A finely rendered portrait of misspent youth, glastonburykids brings us up close to these excessive miscreants bent on auto destruction and other nihilistic, illegal antics. Watching these kids work through their confusion about their privileged upbringing and trying to break through the chains of conformity is amusing and universal — it's called growing up American. But while they may be sloppy youth, Donais shoots, edits and scores the film with great precision, creating a perfect fusion of the gross and the sublime. Luckily, the Glastonbury kids will always have this film to help them remember their brief, glorious jackass-tic moments. Plays with A Different Color Blue (dir. Melanie Levy, 4 min.) — This jazzy portrait introduces us to poet and artist Charles Curtis Blackwell, who lost his eyesight at the age of 20. (BH)