How the director of Social Animals made a documentary about teens and Instagram that doesn’t suck

Social Animals, the feature-length debut from documentary director Jonathan Ignatius Green, stars three kids: self-taught New York street photographer Humza Deas, dancer and aspiring fashion brand mogul Kaylyn Slevin, and Ohio high school student Emma Crockett, who stands in for the everyman teen. They talk about their lives, which means they talk about Instagram — how it’s helped them, how it’s harmed them, what the rules are, what people can use it for, why they might care.

That’s it! It starts with a simple, unpretentious concept, and the result is a nuanced and judgment-free look at how life works for kids in the digital age.

To lay out the story of a self-made artist, Green shows Deas sitting on a twin-sized bed while subway cars...

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