About the Film

Like her peers, Bawi Par is a teenager in search of belonging and self-worth, but unlike her peers, she has waded through quicksand and has had to drink from mud puddles in order to survive. Since fleeing Myanmar as a child, Bawi has watched her parents forfeit their future for hers. Worthy (working title) is a short documentary that follows Bawi through her senior year of high school as she works to get a full ride scholarship to college and build a life worthy of her parents’ sacrifice.

A refugee from Myanmar and building a new life in America, Bawi Par’s life is marked by rejection and sacrifice - she was persecuted by and forced to flee from her home country as a child, and now she watches her parents relinquish their dreams for hers.

Many American teenagers are in constant pursuit of self-worth while feeling pulled between childhood and adulthood. Bawi is no different. As she enters her senior year of high school, she is confronted by the inbetweenness of her cultural identity - she is both a teenager in America and also a refugee child with adult responsibilities. She is a young woman excited to go to her high school prom and a daughter who translates the mail for her parents.  She is a student studying for exams and a teacher helping her dad prepare for his American citizenship test. 

At its core, this story is a teen’s quest for self-worth. But how does one understand their worth when they’ve had to flee persecution from their home country and face rising hate against them in their new country? How can a young woman handle the pressure of knowing her parents gave up their future so that she could have one? Worthy takes the viewer on an intimate journey of finding worthiness as a New American teenage girl.