Foster Care, Education Films Show Need for Res Ed
From Place to Place and Waiting for Superman shed light on America’s broken child welfare and education systems – and as a result, how children are struggling profoundly and getting lost in “foster care drift,” “drop-out factories,” and “academic sinkholes.” Residential education – where at-risk youth live and learn in safe, stable, and education-focused settings - is one viable alternative to foster care and ineffective school systems.
Directed by Academy Award winner Davis Guggenheim (also of An Inconvenient Truth), Waiting for Superman follows five promising students through our country’s education system that inhibits – rather than encourages – academic growth. The documentary provides an exhaustive review of public education. One of the five students hopes to attend residential education program The SEED School of Washington, DC, and illustrates the high stakes for families without many options.
Waiting for Superman will be released this fall and is the recipient of the 2010 Sundance Film Festival’s Audience Award for Best U.S. Documentary.
From Place to Place spends two years in the lives of six youth who recently aged out of Montana’s foster care system. At 18 years old, they are forced to leave the system without the skills or support they need to be successful. They struggle immensely to make the transition from foster care to independence. Their stories of trauma, abandonment, multiple placements, and aging out can argue the need for nurturing residential education programs, many of which also have transitional independent living programs where graduates can continue to reside and learn life skills as they transition to adulthood. The film will be released in December.
- Trailer for Waiting for Superman - Official Movie Web Site 6/3/10
- Trailer for From Place to Place - Official Movie Web Site 6/3/10