Best Films of 2020
#8 – Boys State

I fit in a few memorable documentaries this year, including Crip Camp, Dick Johnson is Dead and Time. But the one that really blew me away was Boys State, by directors Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine.

This film focuses on the annual Boys State summer leadership program in Texas. Boys State and Girls State programs are held all over the country and through the years have graduated future presidents, senators and governors. The program separates attendees into two factions and has them form representative governments, with some students campaigning for elected office.

Boys State exposes everything wrong with America’s electoral system, starting with the kind of people it attracts. Texas being a largely Republican state, many of the young men featured here are future Ted Cruzes and Josh Hawleys. They crave power and will cross any line to achieve it. To them, politics is a real-world game of Survivor, and if you have to lie to get to the end, well, that’s just part of the game.

Watching such cynicism and amorality in people so young is disheartening, especially because you know they’re just modeling the behavior we’ve all seen on our TV screens for decades.

Hope comes in the form of Steven Garza, a 19-year-old boy from Houston, the son of Mexican immigrants. He is the film’s Barack Obama or Pete Buttigieg (indeed, director Mosss and McBaine will next helm Mayor Pete, a documentary about the former South Bend mayor’s historic presidential run).

Garza embodies the optimism and openness lacking in so many of our political leaders. And it’s heartening that he doesn’t get swallowed up by Boys State, but manages to thrive.

Boys State left me simultaneously afraid of and excited about the next generation’s emergence in politics. Will we see more Madison Cawthorns or AOCs? Ultimately, I fall slightly more on the side of hope, because I think this won’t be the last we hear of Steven Garza.