FREE WHEELIN’ {BY BILL O’DRISCOLL}
FANS OF THE SERIES WILL BE EAGER TO SEE HOW THE GANG, NOW 56, IS GETTING ON
Ross Nugent isn’t especially a car guy, but the two shorts he’s screening at Film Kitchen betray a certain fascination. “Hopper Repair” lovingly memorializes the rusting hulks in a VW auto graveyard near Nugent’s hometown of Sharon, Pa. And the nine-minute “Tear It Up, Son!” documents Yankee Lake Truck Night, which draws up to 10,000 people to watch monster-wheeled pickups put through their muddy paces in a drained eastern Ohio lake.
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EXAMINED
Truck Night: Ross Nugent’s “Tear It Up, Son!”
“It was this controlled chaos. It blew my mind,” says Nugent, a mainstay of the experimental-film scene just back from graduate studies in Wisconsin. “Tear It Up” combines crisp black-and-white cinematography — shot on a vintage handwound Bolex — with overheard audio. (“I just yanked some dude’s bumper clean off his truck! Heh-heh!”) Also screening are two shorts by veteran filmmaker Bob Buncher, including “Pennsylvania NW,” a dramatic dialogue for two top local actors, John Shepard and Robert Haley. And Scott Whiteman’s four Film Kitchen shorts include: two memorably odd music videos; the darkly comic “Sleeping Pills”; and “Left Behind Like Son,” a wicked mashup of two disparate films from different phases of Kirk Cameron’s career. DRISCOLL@PGHCITYPAPER.COM
8 p.m. Tue., March 12. Melwood Screening Room, 477 Melwood Ave., N. Oakland. $5. 412-681-9500
DEAD MAN DOWN. In this thriller from Niels Arden Oplev, the right-hand man of a mob boss falls for one of the gangster’s victims.
Colin Farrell and
Noomi Rapace star. Starts Fri., March 8.
LIFE
{BY AL HOFF}
This boy’s life: Peter, one of the Up Series subjects, at age 14 (left) and 56
I
N 1964, 14 British children, age 7, were filmed for a television show called 7 Up. Jumping off from the maxim “give me the child until he is 7 and I will show you the man,” the show interviewed the youngsters — who were intentionally chosen from varied social, geographic and economic backgrounds — about their lives and plans for the future. Were their lives already pre-determined by their circumstances? Subsequently, director Michael Apted (who had been a researcher on 7 Up) returned every seven years to re-interview the kids-turned-adults, following them through the personal (jobs, marriages), while history unfolded around them. The Up Series, now in its eighth update in 56 Up, has itself evolved into a compelling ongoing project, variously a documentary, cultural anthropology and a more thoughtful (but no less entertaining) form of what we now know as reality TV. 7 Up concluded by intoning: “This has been a glimpse of Britain’s future.” Now much of that future has been recorded.
The series provides too small a sample to draw any conclusions from — there were working-class kids who prospered, private-school kids who floundered, and others who adhered more closely to what was expected of them. But as an anecdotal document of how 14 people grew up and adapted to five decades of change, it’s fascinating. (Unforeseen in 1964: Britain’s multicultural society and the changing role of women.)
56 UP DIRECTED BY: Michael Apted Starts Fri., March 8. Harris
CP APPROVED The current check-in finds the 56-yearold subjects dealing with typical mid-life issues, such as aging bodies, empty nests and grandchildren. But there are new external concerns, such as the impact of the recent economic downturn and the austerity measures that are shredding Britain’s social safety net. (Nearly all the
parents, regardless of their economic status, feel that life will be more difficult for their children.) To enjoy 56 Up, one needn’t have seen the previous films, as Apted includes ample background material. Obviously, those who have followed the whole series will be eager to see how the gang is getting on, and how they’ve weathered the changing times (as we all have). What’s especially interesting about this episode is how reflective the subjects have become — about their participation in the project, the show’s original premise and whether there’s been any larger value to the series. Several participants complain that the series has inaccurately depicted them, even accusing Apted of cherry-picking footage to keep his thesis viable. But Nick, the farmer’s lad turned professor, concedes to a workable compromise: “The idea of looking at people over time and how they evolve — that was a really nifty idea. … It’s not an absolute picture of me, but it is a picture of somebody — and that’s the value in it.” A H OF F @ P G HC I T Y PA P E R. C OM
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