Sunday, June 10, 2007
Nowhere To Go But Up
Yesterday I hiked 7.5 miles up and down the mountain ridges of the Delaware River Gap, 70 miles west of NYC. Boy, am I sore.. Also, left my camera at home : - (The most interesting film I've seen of late is the landmark 1963 British documentary 'Seven Up,' in which 20 British seven year olds of varying social background were brought together for interview and interaction by filmmaker Paul Almond. The quote that inspired him was 'Give me the child until age seven, and I'll give you the man.' Not sure I'd totally agree, but it was a very penetrating 35 minutes. It might have stopped there...
But Almond's assistant, Michael Apted, has a life's work out of checking up on the 20 subjects every seven years to see where life has taken them. So far, I've only seen the second installment, '7 Plus Seven,' at age 14 in 1970, but Apted continues to this day, and released '49 Up' in 2005. The series brings up many great questions: how much does social class determine later life in the UK? Was the subject's fame from the series a factor that may have prejudiced the results? And, does the humanistic inquiry here raise this series far above a proto-reality-show (my answer: YES!). Pictured here, the gang at age 21 - I have '21 Up' at the top of my Netflix queue, so I'll learn more later this week...
What Does Jester Know
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