Middletown. 2025. Directed by Jesse Moss, Amanda McBaine

Film

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Held on Thu, Feb 27, 7:00 p.m.

Followed by a conversation with the filmmakers

MoMA, Floor T2/T1, Theater 1

The Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 1

Middletown. 2025. USA. Directed by Jess Moss, Amanda McBaine. Courtesy the filmmakers

Middletown. 2025. USA. Directed by Jesse Moss, Amanda McBaine. New York premiere. 113 min.

Fresh from Sundance and the centerpiece of Doc Fortnight 2025, this latest documentary by the award-winning creators of Boys State (2020) and Girls State (2024) follows a group of muckraking high school students who uncovered a toxic waste scandal in Upstate New York in the early 1990s and made national news with their DIY video exposé Garbage, Gangsters, and Greed. Led by Fred Isseks, the teacher who put a powerful new investigative tool—the camcorder—in their hands, the students tenaciously followed leads, coaxed whistleblowers, and confronted stonewalling officials into revealing a corrupt criminal pact between local government and organized crime. Miraculously, Isseks safeguarded the raw (and sometimes raucous) footage from Garbage, Gangsters, and Greed in his basement, inspiring Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine (who were themselves teenagers discovering documentary filmmaking in the early 1990s) to reunite the students some 30 years later.

This film accompanies Doc Fortnight 2025: MoMA’s Festival of International Nonfiction Film and Media.

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