In ‘The Youth Governor,’ Fresh-Faced Candidates Vie For California’s Highest Office: “Going In The Elevator, Getting Bum-rushed, Signing Autographs… It Was Crazy.”

deadline.com:

American democracy faces multiple threats – not from external forces as during the Cold War, but from within. A former president unwilling to acknowledge his defeat at the polls, conspiracy theories (unsupported by evidence) about a “stolen” election.

Voter suppression. Minority rule.Amid all these worrisome signs, there is a spark of hope – America’s young people. A lot of them are deeply invested in our democratic form of government, to judge from the new documentary The Youth Governor.

The film directed by brothers Jaron and Matthew Halmy shows California teenagers getting first-hand experience in electoral politics, not to mention the legislative process and the judicial system.

These Golden State high schoolers take part in the annual Youth and Government simulation capped by the election of a “youth governor.” But the program, supported by YMCAs, is by no means limited to California.“It’s in 42 states,” Matthew Halmy noted at a Q&A that followed a showing of the film at the Laemmle Monica in Santa Monica last week. “There’s probably 60,000 kids right now who are in Youth and Government.”The film, released by Greenwich Entertainment, follows a half dozen candidates who ran for Youth Governor in California in a campaign that stretched across several months.