Jawline
In rural Tennessee, Austyn Tester, a 16-year-old newcomer to the live-broadcast ecosystem, attempts to ride a wave of optimism to become the next big internet “crush”. Teen girls across the globe watch online “boy broadcasts” like Tester’s, where their favorite heartthrobs might actually interact with them for a minute or two. But Tester’s earnestness sets him apart as he peers wide-eyed into his laptop camera, for hours on end, and professes his unconditional love and support to his female fans. He is selling male validation, and asks for fame and a better life for his family in return. Will Tester’s open heart give him celebrity status and a chance to escape from his dead-end town, or is this new ecosystem built for failure?
Liza Mandelup is a film director from New York currently residing in Los Angeles. She has published two photo books and has shown her work in numerous exhibitions. She has been a longtime collaborator with many online platforms, such as Vogue, Nowness, i-D, and Dazed. Mandelup was featured on Filmmaker magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film 2017”, and recently won the Sundance Film Festival’s U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Emerging Filmmaker.