Michael Apted

Description :
Starting in 1964 with Seven Up, renowned director Michael Apted has explored this Jesuit maxim. The original concept was to interview 14 children from diverse backgrounds from all over England, asking them about their lives and their dreams for the future. Every seven years, Apted has been back to talk to the same subjects, examining the progression of their lives. From cab driver Tony to East End schoolmates Jackie, Lynn, and Susan and the heart-breaking Neil, we see, as they enter their 40’s, how close these subjects are to realizing their ambitions. Read More »

Description :
Starting in 1964 with Seven Up, renowned director Michael Apted has explored this Jesuit maxim. The original concept was to interview 14 children from diverse backgrounds from all over England, asking them about their lives and their dreams for the future. Every seven years, Apted has been back to talk to the same subjects, examining the progression of their lives. From cab driver Tony to East End schoolmates Jackie, Lynn, and Susan and the heart-breaking Neil, we see, as they enter their 40’s, how close these subjects are to realizing their ambitions. Read More »

‘7 UP’/’28,’ BRITISH DOCUMENTARIES
THE twin documentaries ”7 Up” and ”28 Up,” which were shown last night at the New York Film Festival (and which open at the Film Forum 1 on Oct. 16), constitute as fascinating a work of popular sociology as you may ever see. ”7 Up,” which was first shown on British television in 1963, collected a group of 7-year-olds from different class strata and let them describe their values, their prejudices and their hopes for the future. The same project takes on tremendous poignancy and a great deal more breadth in ”28 Up,” a follow-up study consisting of much longer profiles of the same people, revealing how their dreams and aspirations have changed with time.Read More »

Summary by Paul Gaita:
The premise behind the Up series is deceptively simple: take a cross-section of children at age 7, ask them about their hopes for the future, and then return every seven years to mark their progress. However, the results of these experiments, launched in 1963 by Britain’s Granada Television, are anything but mundane, and their revelations about society, maturation, and the human condition were compiled into seven extraordinary films.Read More »

Quote:
56 Up is the latest instalment of the landmark TV documentary series which has returned every seven years to focus on a group of people from varying social backgrounds who were first filmed at the age of seven. The new series revisits all but one of the original group.Read More »