DVD Review: Controversial 1985 Sundance Documentary Winner ‘Seventeen’

To those who have accused the contemporary Sundance Film Festival of tending to favor a particular kind of narrative or documentary feature, “Seventeen” will serve as evidence that at one time, the jurors in Park City stood behind dangerous or risky filmmaking, and certainly the documentary from Joel DeMott and Jeff Kreines comes backed with a helluva story.

In 1982, PBS was gearing up to air “Middletown,” a miniseries that would take viewers to Muncie, Indiana where they would get an intimate, unfiltered view of middle America. But there was just one problem. The sixth part by DeMott and Kreines, “Seventeen,” ran afoul of Xerox. As the corporate sponsor of “Middletown,” they were offended by the foul language and, perhaps, controversial content found within the episode, and so it never made it to broadcast. However, it did make it to Sundance in 1985, where it earned the Grand Jury Prize in the documentary category. However, the question is, thirty years later, does “Seventeen”...