The New Boys
1974 · 27m · Canada
Directed by John N. Smith
Genres: coming-of-age, documentary
Tones: contemplative, tense
Boys aged 13 to 15 seeking admission to a demanding Manitoba outdoor school endure a gruelling initiation, paddling and portaging 500 kilometres through wilderness in two weeks.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Everyone expects a coming-of-age doc to be about self-discovery and triumph—Smith just films kids suffering through bureaucratic endurance and calls it a rite of passage, which is the most honest thing about it, even if it refuses to wink at its own bluntness.
A formally decisive documentary that inherits the tradition of direct cinema while understanding that initiation narratives require observation without sentiment; the 500-kilometre structure becomes both subject and form, each portage a bracket in an argument about institutional belonging.
Smith's choice to hold on the physical exhaustion—the repetitive paddle strokes, the wordless portages—rather than cut to triumphant montage is what makes this work; it's the craft decision that trusts the viewer to feel the transformation without being told.