Stereotypes In The Film 'Boys State'

In the documentary Boys State, filmmakers Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine capture the week-long process of 2018 Texas Boys State, where 1000 seventeen-year-old boys gather and run a mock political election. Moss and McBaine make several rhetorical choices throughout the film to cultivate a humorous, suspenseful, and at times shocking story. The directors appeal to pathos, use individual interviews with the candidates, and implement unique camera angles to show multiple perspectives. Moss and McBaine apply pathos, especially when telling Steven Garza’s story, to elicit empathy from the audience and introduce an emotional angle to the largely factual scope of politics. Garza, a candidate with liberal views who runs for governor with the Nationalist

A common hallmark of documentaries, these individual interviews allow the audience to learn more about the candidates and gives the candidates an opportunity to share information they wouldn’t otherwise. For example, Nationalist Robert MacDougall reveals to the camera that he is pro-choice, despite appearing adamantly pro-life in his speech for governor, a position he claims was necessary to take in order to gain support from his peers. These interviews also often instigate self-reflection, as McDougall obtains a newfound understanding of why politicians may lie about their stances to gain support. Furthermore, several of these interviews are held in the participants’ living rooms before Boys State begins, which contributes an added personal element by observing them in their own home environments. These individual interviews with the protagonists of the film create familiarity and allow them to further explain their stances and the reasoning behind them to the