Nursery University is a feature documentary that is described by the filmakers "a film which reveals the oddly competitive, yet often
humorous, world of nursery school admissions." The film will be at Cobble Hill Cinema on May 1, 2009. For more information go to the film's website.
Ah, yes. A subject close to home to many in Park Slope.
The film tells the story
of five families – each with different backgrounds and economic
circumstances – attempting to place their toddlers in prestigious
Manhattan preschools that have limited spaces and high price tags.
of five families – each with different backgrounds and economic
circumstances – attempting to place their toddlers in prestigious
Manhattan preschools that have limited spaces and high price tags.
NURSERY UNIVERSITY follows the families’ journeys while also going
behind the scenes with the experts that advise them and the school
directors who must determine which “applicants” to allow through their
doors. Enjoy the insanity in this sweeter look at the social issues,
and the little darlings at the center of all the fuss.
I don’t think the film is funny at all. It shows how pathetic middle aged successful New Yorker’s allow themselves to be manipulated into thinking that a child nearing 3 years old and still in diapers needs his/her parents to write an essay about what they are looking for in a school. The parents are re-pledging for sororities and fraternities and being accepted or rejected by the same standards as when they were young. This is not a movie about a culture I would want to belong to. Plus how surprised are you that the child of the parents who have a home that overlooks the East River got into every school applied for? These parents had better hope there is reincarnation for they are sure throwing away any pleasure they might find in this life. I can only feel sorry for them. The film is predictable–the super rich family has no trouble, the minority parents get a scholarship, the Villagers choose a less demanding school without a famous name and the upwardly mobile mother who finds herself pregnant again leaves town for a more “civilized” location. Many groups of people attending lectures on the subject of how to get your toddler into a nursery school are old enough to be grandparents; instead they are first beginning the journey of parenthood. If this film is at all trying to show us the lives of “successful” people, we need to redefine the definition of success. Plus, it could make many people decide not to reproduce if they happen to live in Manhattan.