If there were ever a search for the historical prototypes of modern videojournalism then surely Michael Apted’s 7-UP series would figure large. Number 8 should be arriving soon, if the series is still alive.
A brief description from MA of his epiphany with regard to video and objectivity:
“Personally, I think I was deluding myself for the first few films, thinking I was making this big political statement about the English social class system. Then I brought the film to America, somewhat reluctantly; I didn’t think Americans would understand it…
But Americans understood the films very well. Then it occurred to me that maybe what I was doing was something quite different from what I thought I was doing. I was making a much more humanitarian film — I was making something about an experience that’s shared by everyone on the planet, and not particularly just about England. The series is in England, but it’s about something more than living in England, it’s about being alive. That was an epiphany for me, strange as it might seem, and that, in some ways, relaxed me a bit. I wasn’t hammering on about politics and about how awful it is to have grown up in England during those periods anymore, and it kind of relaxed the film a bit, gave it more room to breathe.
All I have to do is show up, not try and preempt what they’re going to say, not try and guide people through it, not try and have them say what I think they should say. I have to try and take myself out of the equation and let them speak.” pbs
