Remembering Michael Apted: How the ‘Up’ Series Shaped Cinema… and Its Director

Michael Apted was 22 when he joined the crew of “Seven Up!,” a British made-for-television documentary that profiled 14 children from different class backgrounds.

That made him 15 years senior to his subjects, with whom he maintained contact, establishing an almost familial connection that spanned more than half a century.Apted did not direct the original 1964 documentary, as is commonly thought, nor was that initial installment such an important landmark in the field of nonfiction filmmaking.

The breakthrough came in Apted’s decision to continue the project with an hour-long follow-up TV movie seven years later, “7 Plus Seven” — and again every seven years after that — revisiting as many of the children as would agree to participate as they grew up, found their ways in life, fell in love, married, divorced and so on.As conceived, the “Up” series had a decidedly sociological bent, focusing on the British class system and to what degree

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