16 and Recovering goes inside Northshore Recovery High School in Beverly, Massachusetts, one of the only schools in the country built for teenagers fighting substance use disorder. Over one school year, the series follows nine students and principal Michelle Lipinski as they navigate recovery, relapse, and everything it takes to just be a teenager at the same time.
Directed and produced by Steve Liss, the four-part series premiered on MTV on September 1, 2020, at the start of National Recovery Month.
I wore a lot of hats across the series: camera operator and boom operator during production, assistant camera, key production assistant, and assistant editor in post. Documentary work inside a real school, with real kids in the hardest stretch of their lives, demands a small footprint and a lot of trust. You learn to be present without being noticed, and to treat every frame with the care these students deserved.
This one was also personal: Beverly is the same town where I was finishing my BFA at Endicott College, so this story unfolded in my own backyard.
If your documentary needs a crew that knows how to earn trust and stay invisible, I'd love to hear about it.
See My Services →More project recaps: Murder in Boston (HBO) Eternal Presence (MFA) The Summer Stroll (NESN)