#SUNDANCE: “GIRLS STATE” REVIEW

By Amanda Gilmore

Directors Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss’ return to Sundance after premiering their hit Boys State back in 2020. They bring yet another captivating look inside the world of teenage politics with the outstanding Girls State.

This time around they focus in on a group of teenage girls from all over Missouri. They each have a passion for government and attend a week-long immersive experience in American democracy. They must build a government from the ground up and reimagine what it means to govern.

A Documentary about people relies heavily on the charisma of those subjects. Thankfully for McBaine and Moss, each of the teenage girls attending Girls State are loaded with charisma, passion, and ambition. We get to know each of them as they run for Governor, Attorney General, and spots on the Supreme Court. We’re instantly swept up in their goals leading us to cheer and cry at their wins and losses.

During their time at Girls State, the issues of reproductive rights loom over them as the real-life U.S. Supreme Court debates overturning Roe v. Wade. It makes for an enthralling look into the minds and opinions of future leaders on the topic. Most importantly, the Co-Directors’ lens is focused solely on the future leaders who will be directly impacted by the overturn.

Girls State can push its theme of gender inequality within government further by having the Boys State share the same campus. The young women at Girls State are told they can’t walk alone anywhere on campus and their clothes must be of a certain length. While Boys State can walk alone anywhere and can have their shirts off whenever they wish. Including this in the documentary allows McBaine and Moss to show that even in an all-female pseudo-government, women are conditioned to be treated differently and feel less than. It’s the bittersweet reality that the Co-Directors leave you with while leaving room for hope that change will happen thanks to these brilliant minds.

Apple TV+ will release Girls State on April 5, 2024.

Girls State screens at Sundance ’24:

Jan 18 at 3:30 PM at Eccles Theatre

Jan 19 at 5:00 PM at Magaplex Theatres at The Gateway – Theatre 1/2/3

Jan 20 at 9:00 AM at The Ray Theatre

Jan 21 at 2:15 PM at Magaplex Theatres at The Gateway – Theatre 8/9

Jan 24 at 11:30 AM at Redstone Cinemas – 2

Jan 27 at 6:45 PM at Magaplex Theatres at The Gateway – Theatre 8/9

#FIRSTLOOK: “GIRLS STATE” DOCUMENTARY COMING TO APPLE TV+

Today, Apple Original Films announced new documentary feature “Girls State,” directed and produced by award-winning filmmakers Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine (“Boys State,” “The Mission”), and Academy Award winner Davis Guggenheim’s Concordia Studio. After the widely celebrated, Emmy Award-winning documentary “Boys State,” also produced by Moss, McBaine and Concordia, made its buzzy premiere at Sundance in 2020, the inevitable question arose: what about Girls State?

The documentary follows 500 teenage girls from across Missouri as they gather for a week-long immersion in an elaborate laboratory of democracy, where they build a government from the ground up, campaign for office and form a Supreme Court to weigh the most divisive issues of the day. In “Girls State,” the country is now deeper into democratic crisis, with civil discourse and electoral politics increasingly fragile under ever more extreme political polarization. As questions of race and gender equality in a representational democracy reach a fever pitch, these young women confront the complicated paths women must navigate to build political power. Following a distinctly female perspective and filled with teenage insecurity, biting humour and a yearning for true friendship, the young leaders of “Girls State” win hearts and minds—not just elections.

“In these turbulent times, we were inspired and moved by the young women we met at Missouri Girls State, and the stories that emerged in one, eventful week. ‘Girls State’ is very much a ‘sibling’ – singular and surprising but also related to ‘Boys State’ in its prescient portrait of young people coming of age in this political moment,” said Moss and McBaine.

“Girls State” is a Concordia Studio presentation of a Mile End Films production.

Following its debut at Sundance, the ground-breaking documentary “Boys State” was broadly acclaimed, earning accolades including the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special; two Critics Choice Documentary Award wins including Best Political Documentary; the Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize; the SXSW Film Festival Louis Black/Lone Star Award; and a DGA Award nomination, among many other honours.

“Girls State” joins the award-winning slate of Apple Original documentary films, including Guggenheim’s “STILL: A Michael J. Fox Movie,” also produced by Concordia Studio, which recently swept the Critics Choice Documentary Awards with five wins, after having been nominated for seven Emmy Awards, the most nominations for any nonfiction film or series this year. Other acclaimed Apple Original documentaries include Critics Choice Documentary Award nominee “The Pigeon Tunnel,” pulling back the curtain on the storied life and career of former British spy David Cornwell; “Stephen Curry: Underrated,” the remarkable coming-of-age story of one of the most influential, dynamic and unexpected players in the history of basketball; NAACP Image Award-winning film “Sidney,” honouring the legendary Sidney Poitier and his legacy as an iconic actor, filmmaker and activist; Emmy Award-nominated film “Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me,” a uniquely raw and intimate documentary spanning her six-year journey into a new light; a new upcoming documentary film about the groundbreaking life and career of seven-time Formula One world champion Sir Lewis Hamilton; and many more.

Apple TV+ offers premium, compelling drama and comedy series, feature films, groundbreaking documentaries, and kids and family entertainment, and is available to watch across all your favourite screens. After its launch on November 1, 2019, Apple TV+ became the first all-original streaming service to launch around the world, and has premiered more original hits and received more award recognitions faster than any other streaming service in its debut. To date, Apple Original films, documentaries and series have earned 402 wins and 1,674 award nominations and counting, including multi-Emmy Award-winning comedy “Ted Lasso” and historic Oscar Best Picture winner “CODA.”