Indie documentary filmmaker Doug Block’s new film, “The Kids Grow Up,” now has a trailer and some screening info. Following his relationship with his daughter as she grows from infancy to leaving for college, the demographic seems wide on this one; teens of a certain age will be able to relate to their parents being overprotective, and parents will likely relate to Block’s apprehension of the inevitable move out.
In 2006, the Long Island based documentary filmmaker released “51 Birch Street,” a film this writer found particularly moving, and that received a four star review by Roger Ebert. ‘Birch Street’ delves into his parents’ relationship history following the death of his mother and remarriage of his father to his secretary. While not as “juicy” as it sounds, the picture is very human and has much to say about raising a family and maintaining a relationship for over 50 years. Although the trailer for his new film may seem a little corny, Block has tread these emotional grounds before and if his previous film is any indication, “The Kids Grow Up” could prove a truly honest film rather than over-dramatic.
The documentary world is often bloated with hyper-political propaganda, which leaves little room (and honestly, little interest) in personal documentaries that follow more grounded principals such as family, love, and friendship. There are outlets for these documentaries (festivals, special theater programs, television) but they never seem to get the proper reception that they deserve. Here’s hoping this one goes far. For now, the film is set to play at the NY IFC’s Stranger than Fiction doc series on April 20th, and in Toronto at the Hot Docs International film festival May 4th and 6th.
This looks pretty awesome. It's great to see the dad from '51 Birch Street.' Characters from other films.
Harder to find is his mid/late 90's documentary Homepage, which follows a few early web pioneers and ends up profiling the first bloggers, waaaaaay before that term existed, and before the concept of putting your life on the web for strangers to see was considered even remotely normal. For that reason it's more relevant now than when it was made. (Full disclosure: I did some asst. editorial work on the film.)
Check out:
http://old.d-word.com/homepage/
Seems like Ross McElwee has done this exact same thing and tone all before. I guess there's a dash of the Up! series in there.
Block definitely takes some cues from McElwee, even if he's unaware of it. I'd like to think he's the McElwee of the digital age.