The American college application process can be stressful at the best of times. For the super-smart, mostly Asian-American students at San Francisco's Lowell High School, it's emotionally draining. At Lowell, it's cool to be a nerd – everyone is talented.

This Storyville documentary follows a group of students as they make their university applications, all of them under pressure to get a prized spot at one of the country's most elite institutions. Try Harder! is a portrait of young adults in the most diverse American generation ever, navigating their way through a quintessential rite of passage.

A Storyville documentary. A Russian radio producer sets up a TV station and finds herself in the vanguard of the struggle to protect independent journalism in her country.