Screenagers Under The Influence: Addressing Vaping, Drugs, and Alcohol in the Digital Age, the third feature documentary in the Screenagers trilogy, delves into how the tech revolution has reshaped adolescence and its effects on substance use. The film debunks myths and depicts strategies parents and schools can use to encourage healthy decision-making, support teen mental health, set limits, and create healthy home environments. The film also includes many ways young people are using their wisdom and strength to help each other and themselves through this complicated terrain around substance use.
While most documentaries about substance use focus on severe addiction, Screenagers Under The Influence fills a pressing need for a film that explores more common scenarios. The film is grounded in teens’ current reality of being flooded by images on social media, movies, and TV shows about vaping, drugs, and alcohol.
Join Screenagers filmmaker, Delaney Ruston as she picks up her camera once more to examine the impact of our digital age on teens decision making in relation to substances such as vaping, alcohol and drugs. Exploring the latest research and learning more about the personal experiences of teens and families, the film highlights the changing landscape of the substances themselves, offering solutions for how we can best empower teens, as they face decisions about what they will and will not be influenced by.
NOTE: 6 PM Film Screening in person only at Glenbard South Little Theater followed by remarks at 7 PM by Dr. Timothy Fong, Glenbard West Alumnus (hybrid: in person and via zoom)
Timothy Fong MD (Glenbard West class of ‘90) is a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA and part of the faculty leadership of the UCLA Cannabis Research Initiative, a multidisciplinary effort to examine the full impact of cannabis on the body, mind and brain.