The Up Series

I wanted to post about something other than communication media (blogs, internet news sources, public radio and tv, etc.) because it’s easy for me to forget that media also includes what we tend to group up as distinctly “art” or fine art. So! There’s this incredible documentary series put together for the BBC called the “Up Series.” It was originally intended to be a one-time show about the youth of Britain and the class divide that is established basically upon birth and to what extent the class one is born into determines how your life - relationships, career, success, etc. - develops. In “7 Up” – the original program which aired in 1964, sits a group of 7 year olds from various socio-economic backgrounds in front of a camera and talks to them about their interests, their thoughts on racism, their friends, their career ambitions, their boyfriends and girlfriends. And so on. The kids are mesmerizing and adorable and hilarious. It was so popular that the director (currently Michael Apted) returned to the kids 7 years later and started a pattern which continues now: releasing a new Up series every 7 years with the same individuals, many of the same questions and so many, many more complexities. 49 Up was released in 2005.

What I love about the documentary and what makes it alternative media is not only the original intent to dissect the classicism that is still very present in contemporary societies, but for me, and what becomes clearer as the series has progressed, it is simply the fact that showing “boring old everyday folk” (what is so often unshown) IS quite honestly mesmerizing. There is no attempt to dramatize the lives of the men and women/boys and girls, because there is genuine drama that we just so rarely take seriously. When you can follow random, “unimportant” people’s lives in such an intimate way for such a long period, it’s impossible not to feel completely engrossed. I’m not even gonna hesitate to use a cliché and say that it’s just like no other documentary.

The Up Series is in our library!

abra