Last Stop Kew Gardens

A film by Robert Lieberman

Novelist, filmmaker and Cornell physics professor Robert Lieberman, an Americanized child of Holocaust survivors, revisits Kew Gardens, which in the 1940's and 50's was an immigrant "village" a few subway stops from the heart of New York City.

Kew Gardens was a unique enclave where German was the first language and Viennese-style bakeries and butchers lined the streets. This compelling film is the story of what happened to the next generation, the children of these refugee residents who had fled from Europe when Hitler rose to power. With the past weighing heavily upon them, these children could not help but feel the pressure to excel in their new country- and they succeeded.

Appearing in this film are Lieberman's illustrious schoolmates of PS 99: Jerry Springer, comedian Robert Schimmel, Josh Brand (creator of "St. Elsewhere" and Northern Exposure", and the Today Show's music critic Rona Elliot. We also meet other dynamic "overachievers," among them a orchestra conductor, an author, a lawyer and a historian. All of them recall a special community where education was prized and no resident was a stranger. Today the population of this neighborhood has become Asian and Middle Eastern, and Indian markets have replaced the older shops with their Tudor facades. Yet the children of Kew Gardens ( now parents and grandparents themselves) remember a place where a generation of exiles kept one cultural foot in Europe and looked to their offspring to become genuine Yankees.

60 min. DVD. Sale $195. Video rental $85.

" former classmates' reunion turns into vivid recollection..." Newsday