RAISE THE BAR is about young girls who are training basketball under the guidance of a controversial coach. We have been following the girls for four years now and have noticed amazing developments in the mindset of the girls, their behaviour and their basketball techniques. They are unbeatable in mini-basket. High anxiety and a low self-esteem is a known and growing problem for young girls today. We get an insight into the mind of the girls and their path towards their teenage years. This is a story about growing up, were we explore the ideas the girls have about themselves and what is changing in their lives as they train basketball in a way we have hardly seen before. We look at them both as individuals, as girls in sports and as team players. The basketball is the red thread through the story, but adding the layers of the individual girls into the film to understand how they are taking the tools they are handed and using that in their everyday life. It therefore also deals with child participation in matters that are important to them. This is an observational documentary film that shows the deep story that lies inside this unusual basketball project. But this project is certainly not without criticism. It is a story, of a team that wants to change the world, and decides to do something about that. The final goal is that these girls will become the best national women's basketball team ever, but moreover, that they become good human beings.
| Directed by | Gudjon Ragnarsson |
| Written by | Margrét Jónasdóttir, Gudjon Ragnarsson, Iikka Vehkalahti |