Joe Gibbons plays Dr. Joe Baldwin, the self-styled child education expert. He prepares Zoe, from birth, for acceptance into a coveted “gifted-only” kindergarten program. He brings to each lesson an assortment of modified educational books, games and toys. These sessions, along with monologues analyzing her development, are recorded in hopes of proving that “genii [his term] are not born, but made.” What becomes evident is one man’s misguided quest to manipulate pitted against one child’s exuberant resistance to being controlled.
Director’s statement:
"When I was pregnant I saw a crazed world of fast-track educational offerings from Baby Einstein tapes to Embryonics for teaching the fetus. Gibbons’ character is both that desperate need to succeed and its misguided result. The Tutor is made in celebration of free-form childhood. It mixes fictional elements with real-life documentary.
The Tutor pokes fun at competitive parenting, misguided educational methods and systemized testing. The lessons demonstrate youth’s vulnerability against social conditioning. Where history glosses over, Dr. Joe Baldwin boldly fills in. He makes us laugh, but uncomfortably so, for he slyly touches on sensitive issues." --Emily Breer