The Kindergarten Shuffle – Kindergarten Admissions

Oct 1, 2011 by admin

The Kindergarten Shuffle - Image by Getty Images via @daylife

The Kindergarten Shuffle, a New Movie About the New York City Kindergarten Admissions Process, Premiers September 1st, 2010

Julia Motyka and Zeke Morse play mother and son in The Kindergarten Shuffle, an honest exploration of the public and private school admissions process in New York City.

The Kindergarten Admissions process in New York City is a frightening mess. Spots at locally zoned public schools are subject to lottery. Private kindergartens are more competitive than top universities. Navigating specialized programs, such as Gifted and Talented, requires IQ testing and once again, a lottery.

The Kindergarten Shuffle is a movie designed to help negotiate the difficult process by showing four parents going through the entire year. This captivating 93-minute docudrama follows a mother and her friends through the public and private school kindergarten admissions process. We witness first hand a child taking an IQ test, a mother touring public, private, and Gifted Schools, and to a private school ‘playdate’ in which children are observed and interviewed by educators.

Writer/Director Douglas Morse drew upon his experience applying to schools with his son Zeke, and the stories of several friends, to recreate the very difficult year spent searching for the best kindergarten. He shares his knowledge in an informative and entertaining way, brilliantly mixing actors and non-actors in both fictional and documentary settings. In contrast to a documentary, the docu-drama format enabled Morse to illustrate jarring and informative situations not normally afforded to documentary filmmakers.

Grandfather Films produces films about education and for the educational market. Director Douglas Morse has adapted the classical pieces Everyman and The Merchant of Venice, both of which are distributed by Films for the Humanities. His upcoming project is an adaptation of The Jew of Malta. He currently teaches screenwriting and script analysis at The New School and he received his MFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.

NewFilmmakers NY screens every week at Anthology Film Archives on the Lower East Side at 32 Second Avenue & 2nd Street. Admission is $ 6 for the evening and tickets are available at the Anthology Box Office the night of screening. The Anthology Film screening is open to the media and advanced screeners are also available.

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