“Success” is an abstract word and the measure of it is entirely relative. However, there are a couple of benchmarks that most “success” stories have in common including financial stability and steady employment. In her debut documentary, Pamela Littky (a photographer known for her candid celebrity shots) follows four high school seniors from different backgrounds who were all voted Most Likely to Succeed by their graduating class. Littky checks in with her subjects during formative moments over the course of a decade as their plans shift and their perspectives change and broaden. The result is a thought-provoking meditation on privilege and a compelling case study on what it really means to pull oneself up by one’s bootstraps.
Littky’s subjects are two working-class African Americans from Michigan, one white middle-class girl from Florida, and one affluent white boy from Los Angeles. In Detroit, we meet Charles (who goes by Disco), an athlete who was born with a drug addiction and became independent from his adoptive parents his senior year of high school. He looks forward to getting a job and building the family he never had. Quay lives with her single mother who suffers from a heart condition, and all she really wants is to be able to support her family with steady employment. Sarah’s parents are both pastors and her biggest concern when moving into her college dorm is whether or not she brought enough pairs of jeans. Peter worries that his social awkwardness will persist at Brown University. The one thing they all have in common is that they are good people who deserve happiness. For some, it will come easily. For others, it will seem perpetually out of reach…
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