PROM NIGHT IN KANSAS CITY
Directed & Produced by: Hali Lee & Peter von Ziegesar.
Director of Photography: Peter von Ziegesar.
Edited by: Sari Gilman & Dina Guttmann.
Music by: Stephen Thomas Cavit.
Released by: Zeitgeist.
Country of Origin: USA. 54 min. Not Rated.
DVD Features: Directors interview. Prom Pop Culture List: Essential prom tunes & movies. English subtitles.

Like many of us, filmmaker/social worker Hali Lee was taught prom would be the best night of her life. She went through all the motions - the dress, the date, the slow dance - only to find that the magic just wasn’t there. Years later she finds herself obsessed with the meaning of this teenage ritual. Is prom a “junior wedding day,” as one teen calls it? Or is it an “empty exercise in conformity"? Lee decides to find out for herself. Her film feels a bit like Morgan Spurlock’s fast food exposé Super Size Me, as both Lee and Spurlock take to the streets on personal missions that have larger social consequences.

With journalist Peter von Ziegesar, Lee spent four years researching proms in her hometown of Kansas City and videotaped over 250 teenagers at 12 schools. In the end, four groups made the cut: prom-enthused students from a primarily African-American high school, kids from a Mormon school who aren’t allowed to dance, gay and lesbian teens celebrating their own prom, and cynical non-conformist middle-class youth who mock their public school’s dance. The most captivating are the Mormon students, who are such good friends that they’re described as a litter of puppies. Girls attending this school’s senior banquet, which is held in place of a prom, must undergo stringent dress inspections weeks before the event. No spaghetti straps allowed!

Lee’s teens are great subjects. There’s the spunky, big-eared Smurf, an inner-city track star and first generation high school grad, and Oliver, a wannabe filmmaker who can’t wait to flee Kansas City. But for a film with “prom night” in the title, you might expect something a little juicier and a little less PG, but maybe that’s just Kansas. Where are the cat fights, the grinding and groping on the dance floor, the drunkenness, the hotel rooms and the testosterone-driven brawls? Or maybe that’s the point - for most kids, that’s not at all what prom’s about. In the DVD extras, tune into the directors’ interview for stories behind some of the unexplored players and peeks into the teenagers’ present lives. Deborah Lynn Blumberg
July 13, 2005