I admit it. I watched the trailer for Screenagers when it came my way. I sent it to Joey back in February as a maybe post. Leaving aside the merits of the title (Gesundheit!) I was curious about the audience factor.

https://youtu.be/LQx2X0BXgZg

From their press release: “Get more insight into one of the biggest and unexplored issues of our time…Physician (Stanford trained we are told) and filmmaker, Delaney Ruston decided to make SCREENAGERS when she found herself constantly struggling with her two kids about screen time.”

It’s not in theaters. Communities pay to book the documentary for school, public library, church, synagogue, company, and community center; it can be a fundraiser as well. I thought it might be a good fit for the middle school. A future streaming option could work.

In 1998, I saw Kathleen Chalfant in the play WIT. Multiple times. In this play, we witness a university professor as she lay dying. When the curtain dropped, the audience stayed. Eventually the theater planned facilitated discussions with the cast and audience. I don’t recall them. I kept returning and learning because whoever I went with had a wildly different take. Four stood out: my mother (background in psychology), a friend (a young medical director of a busy NYC hospital), another friend (an older artist), and another friend (social worker).

I think the audience component for this documentary might be like that.

Cue GMG poll- If you were going, who’d you see it with?

There’s a local booking. Good Morning Gloucester’s Cape Ann Community bulletin announced an upcoming show of Screenagers on May 2nd at Waldorf School at Moraine Farm in Beverly.