Near the end of Robert Greene's Kati with an I, a documentary about a Southern girl's departure from the twilight of childhood into the dawn of adulthood (this transition being marked by her graduation from high school, and the girl being Greene's own sister), we get the big picture. What happens is this: The rural people have gathered in a high school stadium for a graduation ceremony. The speaker of the occasion—a slightly overweight white man in his late 30s or early 40s—is introduced by a mumbling teenager. The speaker takes the stage and gets right to it:

Let me start by encouraging you to understand that perseverance is more important than talent. And the best way to know that is to understand, as you head out into the world, that the world owes you nothing. And I assure you, class of 2009, look me in the eye, we need you. This country needs your generation like nothing I have seen in my lifetime. This country is on the path to destruction, and frankly my generation has done a poor job of allowing the things to happen here on our watch. And I want, on behalf of my generation, to apologize to you for allowing God to be removed from public schools, for allowing the government to become a state that will dictate and take away our freedoms. I apologize to you that we have not stood up for the rights of the unborn. I believe you can be the generation to change this.

At the end of this teabaggy speech, men and women in the audience stand and applaud. This is the South. These are their truths. These are their youths. And one of them happens to be Kati. She has friends, family, pets, malls, a boyfriend who works at McDonalds, and babies to make. There is no other world for her than the one we see her in. The difference between this documentary and a reality TV show? Kati with an I has no drama, no explosive conflicts. It really is about an ordinary moment in the life of a common Southern white girl. Northwest Film Forum, Fri March 30­–Thurs April 5.