On Screen Manitoba

In the past, when we put the words selfish, reckless, irrational, irritable and impossible together we could only be describing one thing: the teenager – that odd creature that invades our homes for what seems like an eternity and tests the limits of our reasoning skills and patience.

But what if teenagers are doing exactly as nature intended? New research suggests that without our turbulent teen years the human race would be, as Dr. David Bainbridge puts it in Surviving:) The Teenage Brain, “short lived and stupid.”

Surviving:) The Teenage Brain
CBC TV's The Nature of Things
Thursday, January 19, 2012
8 p.m.

Produced by Merit Motion Pictures and writer/director, Elise Swerhone – the award-winning team behind One Ocean, Science of the Senses and TutuMUCH – Surviving:) The Teenage Brain looks at the teen years from an evolutionary perspective and demonstrates that these troubling years are, in fact, key to the survival of our species.

The film combines cutting edge scientific research with YouTube clips of outrageous teen behaviour and a graphic novel visual approach to challenge conventional thinking about adolescence. Today’s teenagers are doing precisely what each new generation has always done, pushing us to evolve and adapt to our environment.

This intriguing documentary features the knowledge and research of international scientists and experts like National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) neurologist Dr. Jay Giedd, one of the world’s foremost experts on adolescent brain development; Cambridge evolutionary biologist Dr. David Bainbridge, author of Teenagers: A Natural History; adolescent mental health expert Dr. Stan Kutcher; biological anthropologist Dr. Helen Fisher and innovation and technology expert Don Tapscott (author of Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing the World).

Together, these experts present surprising new research that explains the peculiarities and immense power and potential of the teen brain. This new perspective could change the way we school, parent and motivate these transitional Homo sapiens. It might even make them easier to live with : - )