Teenage Paparazzo

Teenage Paparazzo is one of those documentaries that you enter in with little expectations and come out pleasantly surprised.

Driector Adrian Grenier – who became a celebrity by playing one on the hit HBO series Entourage – decided to make the film after stumbling across a 13-year-old paparazzo. Yes, you read that right.

It was just another night out for the Entourage star, with countless photographers trying to get the perfect shot of him, when Grenier stumbled across Austin Visschedyk. The young teen was snapping away at Grenier and introduced himself as “paparazzi, dude.”

But Visschedyk – now 17 – wasn’t just a kid with a camera. He was a legitimate paparazzi who prowled outside of nightclubs until 3 a.m. chasing down celebrities for the money shot (sometimes worth upwards of $2,000).

Aside from providing an inside look at what the paparazzi do, the film investigates the celeb-obsessed culture we live in. Teenage Paparazzo looks at all the parts of the system that powers this celebrity phenomenon, including the paparazzi, the celebrities, tabloid journalism and consumers.

The documentary features in-depth interviews with a number of stars such as Matt Damon, Eva Longoria-Parker, Whoopi Goldberg and Paris Hilton – who aside from giving Grenier an interview, was willing to participate in a stunt.

Teenage Paparazzo is quite a compelling documentary. Since it took about three years to make, we really get to see Visschedyk’s transformation. The fact that Grenier himself is a celebrity gives the film a priceless vantage point.

While the movie definitely questions celebrity obsession, it doesn’t necessarily do so with judgment – which is good. Grenier consults experts and fellow celebrities, but what’s cool about the movie is that being a Hollywood actor allows Grenier to recount his first-person observations of fame.

This isn’t Grenier’s first documentary and it definitely won’t be his last.