Greg Whitely, the Utah-born and Brigham Young University-educated filmmaker behind the documentaries "New York Doll" and "Mitt" has interviewed rock stars and presidential candidates.
But in "Most Likely to Succeed," which made its world premiere Sunday at the Sundance Film Festival, Whiteley's camera first points at his daughter Scout, who is struggling to stay focused during a fourth-grade lesson at school.
"It's as if, almost overnight, she decided school wasn't for her," Whitely narrates over images of Scout shifting listlessly in her seat.
It's a personal introduction for the director, who is at Sundance for the third time, 10 years after his debut film "New York Doll" was nominated for the festival's Grand Jury Prize.
During a recent interview with The Tribune, Whiteley said his interest in the subject of education combined with his parental anxieties to reach a zenith as his children progressed through the school system.
Those emotions found their way into "Most Likely to Succeed," a film that points a critical finger at a national education culture that he says is failing children.
"I don't think our anxiety level was anything unique," he said. "I think there's millions of parents that are facing that every day."
In the film, Whiteley suggests that today's public schools are rooted in an educational system created more than 100 years ago to address the needs of an increasingly industrial economy.
The school day, organized by bells and divided into subject periods, resembles a factory, which Whiteley said served the country well during several decades where the average American worker was filling factory line and industrial jobs.
But today, as the film points out, human chess masters and "Jeopardy" champion Ken Jennings are no match for computers, and advances in technology have made the factory worker obsolete.
"Now you have an economy that's shifting and changing exponentially," Whiteley said. "We're in some trouble and we have an educational system that is not only slow to change, it's resistant to change and it can't be."
According to Whiteley, the weaknesses of the educational system aren't a hypothetical forecast. His film points to stagnant middle class incomes and a recent study by the Associated Press that found that half of the country's recent college graduates were either unemployed or working jobs that don't require a college degree.
Public education is already failing to meet the needs of the economy, Whiteley said, and recent efforts to promote critical thinking in schools over rote memorization are "a Band-Aid on a gushing wound."
"We are producing kids with a set of skills that will not allow them to compete in this new economy," Whitely said. "They already can't compete in it."
The film finds as its champion High Tech High, a San Diego charter school that jettisons bell schedules and standardized tests to instead combine subjects and offer teachers full autonomy during a one-year contract.
The school focuses on group projects that foster creativity and collaboration and despite having effectively no preparation for state-mandated assessments, students outperform their peers and boast a college acceptance rate in the high 90 percents.
Whiteley said he was introduced to High Tech High by a strategic adviser who assisted with the documentary. The film highlights several schools engaged in non-traditional strategies, but High Tech High and its students take up the bulk of the 86-minute running time of "Most Likely to Succeed."
"From the moment we walked in and began filming we were so blown away," he said. "When I saw this place it was so unique and so different that it just sucked us in."
The film, part of the Documentary Premieres slate, will premiere at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 25, at Park City's Prospector Square Theatre, with subsequent screenings throughout the coming week at the Yarrow Hotel and Temple Theater in Park City, the Broadway Centre Cinema in Salt Lake City and at the Sundance Mountain Resort Screening Room.
More information can be found at the film's website, MLTSFilm.org, and Whiteley said fans of his last documentary, "Mitt," should check the MittMovie.com website in the coming weeks.
"I'm going to start uploading a bunch of footage that I had of Mitt that didn't make it into the film but I think is fascinating," he said.
Recent news reports suggest that Romney may be dusting off his campaign machine for a third run at the U.S. presidency. But Whiteley said he doesn't have any current plans to shoot a sequel if the former Massachusetts governor decides to run.
"The whole thing is kind of mind-boggling to me," Whiteley said. "I don't believe it to be honest, but what do I know?"
As for returning to Sundance on the 10-year anniversary of his first film, Whiteley said the festival is like the Carnegie Hall for documentary filmmakers.
"I don't make it back to Utah as often as I'd like," he said. "But this is the best way to come back to Utah, with a film premiering at Sundance."
bwood@sltrib.com
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'Most Likely to Succeed'
Sunday, Jan. 25, 2:30 p.m. • Prospector Square Theatre, Park City
Tuesday, Jan. 27, 6 p.m. • Yarrow Hotel Theatre, Park City
Wednesday, Jan. 28, 9 p.m. • Broadway Centre Cinema 6, Salt Lake City
Friday, Jan. 30, 9 p.m. • Temple Theatre, Park City
Saturday, Jan. 31, 6 p.m. • Sundance Mountain Resort Screening Room
Courtesy | Sundance A still from the film "Most Likely to Succeed," which part of the documentary premieres category of the the 2015 Sundance Film Festival.
Courtesy | Sundance A still from the film "Most Likely to Succeed," which part of the documentary premieres category of the the 2015 Sundance Film Festival.
Courtesy | Sundance A still from the film "Most Likely to Succeed," which part of the documentary premieres category of the the 2015 Sundance Film Festival.
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