Pride of Place

Kim Longinotto graduated from the National Film and Television School in Beaconsfield, England, with this film, coming to terms with a painful episode from her past. Longinotto, who co-directed the film with Dorothea Gazidis, was sent to a girls’ boarding school by her parents when she was a teenager. The school, located in an old, isolated castle in Buckinghamshire, ran its own mini-government, with bizarre rules, inedible food, and punishments which were absurd and unfair.

Longinotto wisely ran away at the age of 17, and years later got the unique opportunity for sweet revenge. In subtle but purposeful impressions from the perspectives of girls still living there, she exposes the educational system of this boarding school as a repressive world full of unacceptable regulations.

All subsequent films by Longinotto deal with people who revolt against oppressive authorities and stifling traditions, whether they involve class, gender or sexual orientation. In terms of expressiveness, her debut certainly measures up to her later work. One year after the release of Pride of Place, the boarding school was closed down.