Watch American Selfie: One Nation Shoots Itself

American Selfie: One Nation Shoots Itself is a thought-provoking and timely documentary directed, written, and narrated by Alexandra Pelosi. The film takes a critical look at the ways in which social media has impacted the United States during the tumultuous year of 2020. With the rise of COVID-19, the Black Lives Matter movement, controversial elections, and the ongoing political divide, Americans have taken to their phones to capture and share the events unfolding around them.

The documentary's title, American Selfie, refers to the use of front-facing cameras to snap personal photos or videos, but it also alludes to the narcissism and self-indulgence American society has become synonymous with. Pelosi uses this phenomenon to explore the ways in which Americans use social media to shape their opinions and beliefs while simultaneously shaping the national discourse.

Pelosi perfectly captures the current media landscape, where everything is fair game for dissemination on social media. She extensively interviews a diverse mix of Americans from all backgrounds, races, and ideologies, within the context of the overwhelming media sources that shape their opinions. Some of the interviews highlight the different ways that people use social media to broadcast their beliefs, be it in support of Black Lives Matter or to promote baseless conspiracy theories.

One particularly poignant moment is when Pelosi speaks with a young Latina who has spent months of quarantine in a New York City housing project, discussing the social media campaign to condemn President Trump’s rhetoric with regard to Chinese people and the virus. Through the young woman’s story, we see how someone’s world can be entirely guided by social media, shaped by the posts they see on Instagram or Twitter, and how the medium can allow important public discourse to occur that might otherwise be stifled.

Throughout the documentary, Pelosi deftly uses the interviews and conversations she has with her subjects to shape her narrative, illustrating how social media can be both positive and negative, amplifying voices that might not have had the platform in previous years while also drowning out legitimate discourse.

A particularly insightful moment of the film comes when Pelosi interviews drag queen Manila Luzon on the subject of social media. Luzon brings a unique perspective to the conversation, explaining how drag queens have been able to harness social media to create online communities and foster real-life change. As Luzon explains in the documentary, drag queens use social media as a means of creating safe spaces for queer people and others who might feel marginalized in everyday society. They use Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook to share their art, comedy, and commentary, and to find solidarity during times of unrest.

In her interviews, Pelosi doesn’t shy away from the divisive political landscape of the United States. She interviews people on both sides of the political spectrum, including protesters at Trump rallies, as well as Black Lives Matter protests. She shows how these groups use social media to convey their viewpoints to a wider audience, influence change, and mobilize their supporters. As she crafts her narrative, the filmmaker highlights the tension that social media is causing within the country, exacerbating existing inequalities and vulnerable groups.

In conclusion, American Selfie is an important film that offers a look into the ways that social media has changed the discourse surrounding politics, activism, and society. Alexandra Pelosi has done an impressive job of capturing the fragmentation of information and its dissemination within contemporary American life. Her film forces viewers to question their own usage of social media in their daily lives, and whether the medium has become as harmful as it has positive. American Selfie: One Nation Shoots Itself is a must-watch for anyone interested in exploring the intersection between technology and the public sphere.

American Selfie: One Nation Shoots Itself is a 2020 documentary with a runtime of 1 hour and 31 minutes. It has received mostly positive reviews from critics and viewers, who have given it an IMDb score of 6.3 and a MetaScore of 71.