Try Harder!

The documentary was filmed at a public high school in San Francisco. The school is called Lowell. Entry is selective and the school is known for its academic record. Many of the students come from Asian American families. The camera follows five seniors across a year. All of them are aiming at a good university. The grades are high and the files are full. But the schools they apply to take very few out of thousands. So the effort carries no guarantee. The students are squeezed between classes, tests and activities. Family expectations sit on them as well. Some seem used to it and some are worn out. The film does not use the language of praise for the race. When the results come, not everyone lives through the same thing. The eighty five minute documentary runs on the students’ own words, an American production Debbie Lum finished in 2021.