Seventeen is a candid depiction of the life and times of a group of Muncie, Indiana teenagers. The controversial documentary was slice-of-life, à la mode, and too heavy for PBS television to digest. After commissioning it for the Middletown series, PBS pulled the film when filmmakers Joel DeMott and Jeff Kreines refused to allow it to be censored. Casual drug-taking and interracial relationships are part of the fabric of life for these working-class teens, and thus part of the film which records their lives with free-flowing intimacy. Seventeen takes us back to school, where alienation breeds subversive humor; cruising for burgers, and on dates and drunken "keggers." But it's not all fun; in fact, it's hardly fun at all. The film unfolds into an absorbing real-life drama of a white girl who dates a black boy and becomes the center of neighborhood-wide tension. The nuances of racism are effectively picked up, from the kids' casual honesty to the studied distinctions made by their parents. Viewpoints are many, varied, and all-important within the small community of friends and family the film depicts. As much as anything, Seventeen is a study in language: fast, fascinating, and very, very American.