All American High Revisited

2015 • 82 minutes

About this movie

All American High Revisited" is a one-of-a-kind time capsule of teen life in the 1980s, the unforgettable era of neon fashion, punks and Princess Di hairdos. Shot in a suburban California high school, this rarely-seen documentary is an unusually candid and often comedic look at high school during the Reagan era. This was a time before cell phones, Facebook and reality TV. While taking the audience on a fascinating journey into the past, the film leads up to a revealing new chapter, shot thirty years later. The story is told through the fresh eyes of Rikki Rauhala, a Finnish exchange student who arrives at the beginning of the school year. As the film unfolds, Rikki encounters the range of high school personalities. The prom queen. The stoner. The budding entrepreneur. The microcosm of teen life is on full display. Hoping to fit in, Rikki participates in some classic rites of passage with her new classmates-the homecoming dance, shopping at the mall, beer parties and graduation. The seniors get to choose from an odd range of elective classes: Young Decorator or Surfing or Modern Lifestyles - where students practice getting married... and then divorced. The frantic pace of school life provides a counterpoint to Rikki's astute observations on everything from the quality of American education to teen sex, shopping and drinking. Over the course of the year, Rikki makes friends with the popular crowd and she is chosen to be an Honorary Princess at Homecoming. By graduation, her views have become increasingly Americanized, though she hasn't necessarily learned much in terms of education. After an emotional farewell to her friends, Rikki returns to Finland, promising to return. Fade out. Fade up and it's thirty years later. Rikki is at her home in Finland, now married and a mother of three teens. Having not seen the documentary in decades, she watches her 17-year-old self with a sense of wonder and longing. She shares the film with her family, and her children are astonished that their mother dances the same way now as she did then. Rikki regrets that she never made it back for any of the high school reunions, and wonders what happened to some of her classmates. The film then takes us to meet those students and hear some of their unusual stories. There's the metal-head turned law enforcement officier, the conservative cheerleader who is now a liberal educator, and a "wife" from the mock marriage class who actually married her pretend "husband." These former students, now responsible adults, reflect back on their pre- YouTube teen years. One can't help but be struck by how much being a teenager has changed, and by how it has remained the same. "All American High Revisited," rich in nostalgia and hindsight, presents a strange and almost mystical connection between wisdom and youth, parent and child, adult and former adolescent. This is a film for anyone who has lived through high school. 2014 All American High, LLC