The documentary “Harvard-Westlake High,” created and produced by Líto Knight ’14 in his senior year at the school, was screened in Ahmanson Lecture Hall on Dec. 9. The documentary consists of a series of interviews with students who graduated in 2014, and is described as a “time capsule to be opened and examined in 2024.” After undergoing major life changes, Knight decided to finally share the stories he documented in the film.
The film was released nearly a decade after it was first filmed and deals with themes of “institutional and internal difficulties, competition, drive, reputation, personal representation, identity, belonging and pride,” according to the film’s description.Knight said he interviewed students from a wide variety of backgrounds, which taught him about the school community as a whole.
“Some interviews were 10 minutes, and some were an hour and a half,” Knight said. “Some people would just run with it. I wasn’t doing this for school either. I only took one video art class in tenth grade, and then I borrowed all the equipment. It wasn’t just a selection of friends. It was people from all across the board. ”
Ellie Borris ’25 said he was able to draw parallels between problems the school community faced in 2014 and problems it faces in the present.
“It was interesting to see people 10 years ago talking about a lot of stuff that we still talk about today,” Borris said. “It’s also interesting to see what’s changed since 2014. One thing that seems like it improved quite a bit is diversity in the teaching staff. I think that we have a lot of teachers of color, and it seems like that is way less of an issue. But the lack of community is definitely still an issue, so that has not changed, though people are working on it.”
Many of the student interviews in the documentary touched on the school’s rigorous and competitive approach to academics. Borris said he sees both benefits and drawbacks to this unique culture.
“I think it’s both good and bad,” Borris said. “A lot of it depends on what kind of pressure your parents are putting on you and you put on yourself. It’s been really beneficial for me. I went to a middle school where I was not challenged at all, so I wasn’t really motivated to do anything. Coming here and being surrounded by incredible people has made me feel empowered. But I can also see how it can be really overwhelming for others and make them feel like they’re not good enough.”
After watching the documentary, Sarah Anschell ’26 said she feels that the school environment has changed for the better since 2014, but that it still has its issues.
“It’s really interesting to see people in the film talk about things that are present in the school culture today,” Anschell said. “There was one line from a student interviewee who shared that it felt like the school valued ‘students who do great things more than students who are great people.’ I thought was super impactful and relatable. I think one of the positive ways that the school has changed is that now, people discuss many issues out in the open. I’ve bonded with so many people over talking about how competitive the school is.”
Savvy Mahoney ’25 said she learned a lot from the advice of those interviewed in the film.
“I thought it was super insightful to look back on the decades of people who came before us at the school,” Mahoney said. “There are people who came before you, and it’s interesting to think of how much the school has changed but also how it’s stayed the same. I think there are definitely a lot of similarities between then and now because I think that the world has changed, the community has come together and the school has just become a nicer place to be.”
