Apple TV has made some great content, including a best picture winner, a Martin Scorcese Movie, and a Denzel Washington/William Shakespeare collab. But of all their triumphs, their best film is 2019’s Boys State, which shined a light on these high school programs to create future US political figures. Filmmakers Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine realized they only have told half of the story. They suited up, put on their American Flag lapels, and went to the 2022 Missouri Girls State to give us the female side of the story, hoping lightning would strike twice.
Lots of stuff was going on for the 2022 Missouri Girls State. This was the first year the Boys and Girls State were held together, on the same college campus during the summer. But there was also one other thing on the minds of Emily Worthmore (WHAT a name!), Nisha Murali, Brooke Taylor, Tochi Ihekona, and Faith Glasgow while they’re trying their hands at running political campaigns. This also happened to be the summer Dobbs vs. Jackson decision leaked, ending the federal right (and also states right, since Missouri had trigger laws) to abortion for all these girls on the precipice of womanhood.
The documentarians Moss and McBaine clearly start with an “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” strategy for Girls State like they did for the boys. Regardless of other stuff, the goal was always to find compelling ladies going for ambitious positions starting with governor wannabe Emily Worthmore. The movie sets her up as the “small town conservative” girl, but with a much more open mind than you think she does at the outset. Rivals and opposites Nisha Murali and Brooke Taylor both want a Supreme Court spot. Tochi Ihekona has a tough uphill battle for Attorney General, trying to win over a white, mostly rural populous. Any one of these girls would be a great subject, carrying themselves with more maturity than most people have, let alone teenagers. Using these same techniques as Boys State, Moss and McBaine hoped for the remix version with the Girls State, giving us a snapshot of America’s political system in miniature.
The pair succeeded, just not in the way they maybe wanted. The Dobbs decision and joint Boys State completely reframed how Girls State was supposed to go. At every turn, all of these girls are reminded in little and big ways they’re still not fighting an even fight with the boys. This is an uphill battle, and the only way to get up that hill is to work together to overcome it. So no matter what differences Worthmore, Ihekona, Murali, Taylor, or Glasgow had, the most important takeaway for all of them was learning and growing from their fellow women. Building each other up, not tearing each other down. Each conversation, even the heated ones, always ends with each party getting something worthwhile out of the conversation, as the girls time and time again show that the only way they all succeed is through supporting each other, and learning to find their little niche in this process, even when that niche isn’t what they originally set out to do.
The result? Instead of Boys State’s fear of a neverending cycle, we get this 2022 Missouri Girls State’s beacon of hope in the darkness, recognizing the bad of the world and working as hard as they can to turn it good again. I would like Moss and McBride to do this again a few years from now, to see if anything has changed. But I am hopeful that Emily Worthmore, Nisha Murali, Brooke Taylor, Tochi Ihekona, and Faith Glasgow will all be on the frontlines really trying to bend that arc of the moral universe towards justice.