Front Facing Camera

Teenage self-portraits

What reproaches have not been hurled at Generation Z? Hypersensitive, narcissistic, inattentive, disconnected from the real world… there is no doubt that zoomers have a broad back. But this reactionary stance — which new generation has not been criticised by their elders? — mistakes the tree for the forest, for these young ‘digital natives’ were born into a world where social relations are in the process of transformation. It is in this world that these teenagers have to shape their identity; a hazardous process that increasingly involves staging themselves on the web and social networks. Each of the films in this series, in its own way, bears witness to the realities of young people here and elsewhere, as well as to the possibilities and problems raised by the widespread adoption of new digital self-representation practices. The result is new aesthetics (Jouvencelles), new languages (Selfie), new social codes (How to Save a Dead Friend) and new mythologies (We’re All Going to the World’s Fair).